Social Prescribing Link Worker (ARRS) - Millom
Join Our Team as a Social Prescribing Link Coordinator!
Are you passionate about making a difference in people's lives? We're looking for a Social Prescribing Link Coordinator to join our friendly and dedicated team for 22.5 hours per week over 3 days. In this key role, you'll support individuals with a wide range of needs, from loneliness to long-term conditions.
You'll work closely with patients, families, and healthcare professionals to develop personalized care plans and connect people to local, non-medical services that address their social, emotional, and practical needs. You'll help guide patients toward activities that improve their health and wellbeing. Using motivational interviewing and coaching techniques, you'll empower people to take control of their health and connect with the right resources.
Additionally, you'll collaborate with local authorities and community organizations to develop and grow accessible, sustainable community services. This is a fantastic opportunity to make a real impact in your community while working in a supportive and non-clinical environment.
Closing Date: 25 February 2025
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Please apply as early as possible as this job may close earlier than the advertised closing date once enough applications have been received.
Please note that we are unable to offer an Employer Sponsored Visa for this role.
Main duties of the job
The Social Prescribing Link Co-ordinator plays an important role within the PCN to proactively take a whole population approach, working with people who may benefit from social prescribing.
They will work closely with the Practice team and the ICC team to manage a caseload of patients, acting as a central point of contact to ensure appropriate support is made available to them.
Social Prescribing Link Co-ordinators review patients' needs and support them.
The Social Prescribing Link Co-ordinator will also support the development of accessible and sustainable community offers by working in partnership with VCSE organisations, local authorities, and others to identify gaps in provision and take a community development approach to enabling growth in community activities and groups.
The role of a Social Prescribing Link Co-ordinator is not a clinical role.
All staff are expected to work to Cumbria Health's Values:
* Clinically focused - Everything every one of us does is for the patient
* Responsive - We listen and we respond quickly in a patient-focused way
* One Team - We work together to provide a high quality service which is organised and consistent, and in partnership with both the local Acute and Community Trusts
* Growth & Sustainability - With our strong roots, we will continue to thrive and grow.
* Communities - Connecting with communities to meet local needs.
* High Standards - We provide skilled professionals working to the highest standards who are passionate about improving patient care
About us
Cumbria Health on Call - CH places the patient, their family, and their community at the heart of everything we do. We are an award-winning organisation, the first out-of-hours organisation in the country to be rated as outstanding by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
We provide primary health care services, both in and out of hours, across Cumbria. We are values-driven and place great emphasis on inclusivity and the wellbeing and development of our staff, while striving to provide a consistently high-quality service. Our service is designed to improve health and wellbeing.
Working for CH can offer flexible opportunities in terms of location, hours, and working patterns so you can enjoy a great work-life balance. In order to provide the best patient care, we understand the importance of ensuring staff satisfaction and are consistently trying to ensure we offer our staff a positive working environment whether that be through training or social events.
Listen to your heart. Have the work-life balance you'd love.
Date posted
11 February 2025
Contract
Permanent
Working pattern
Part-time, Flexible working
Reference number
B0554-25-0021
Job locations
Millom Hospital
Lapstone Road
Millom
Cumbria
LA18 4BY
Job responsibilities
This list of duties and responsibilities represents the broad range of tasks which may be required to be undertaken either routinely or periodically. This list is not exhaustive, and the role may include additional duties which are not listed here.
* Take referrals from the PCNs Core Network Practices and from a wide range of agencies, including pharmacies, health and care multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs), the emergency services, legal and welfare advice services, VCSE organisations, and through self-referrals.
* Provide personalised support to individuals, their families, and carers to access community-based activities and support that can help them to take control of their health and wellbeing through co-producing a simple personalised care and support plan and introducing people to appropriate activities, groups, and services.
* Work with appropriate supervision as part of the PCN to manage and prioritise your own caseload, in accordance with needs, priorities, and support required by individuals. Refer people back to other health professionals/agencies, as appropriate or necessary.
* Build ongoing relationships with local infrastructure organisations, community activities, and support services to increase knowledge of the community support offer, and work collaboratively to develop effective partnership working to support the community offer to be sustainable, identifying gaps in provision, nurturing community assets, and sharing intelligence on gaps or problems with commissioners and local authorities.
* Increase the strength and capacity of the community, enabling local VCSE organisations and community groups to both receive social prescribing referrals and to make referrals to social prescribing link workers.
* Educate non-clinical and clinical staff within PCN MDTs on the community support offer, how and when patients can access it, and the value of non-medical community-based interventions. This may include verbal or written advice and guidance.
* Promote social prescribing as an approach across the PCN and wider agencies, including its role in supported self-management, in addressing health inequalities and the wider determinants of health, reducing pressure on statutory services, improving access to healthcare and improving health outcomes, and in taking a holistic approach to care.
Key tasks
Referrals
* Promote social prescribing as an approach across the PCN by attending relevant MDT meetings to build relationships and developing links with local agencies.
* Proactively develop strong links with local agencies to encourage appropriate referrals.
* Provide referral agencies with regular updates about social prescribing, including training for their staff and how to access information to encourage appropriate referrals.
* Seek regular feedback about the quality of service and impact of social prescribing on referral agencies.
* Proactively encourage equitable participation in social prescribing through taking self-referrals and connecting with diverse local communities through a range of methods, particularly communities that statutory agencies may find hard to reach and where health inequalities are most prevalent.
Provide personalised support
* Meet people on a one-to-one basis, making home visits and visits to community organisations where appropriate and within organisations' policies and procedures.
* Use appropriate judgement to ascertain the number and length of sessions required, responding to the needs of the individual and their circumstances, for approximately 6-12 contacts over 3 months.
* Give people time to tell their stories and focus on the question, what matters to me?
* Build trust and respect with the person, providing non-judgemental and non-discriminatory support, taking a strength-based approach that focuses on a person's assets.
* Work with the person, their families, and carers and consider how they can all be supported through social prescribing.
* Help people identify the wider issues that impact on their health and wellbeing, such as debt, poor housing, being unemployed, loneliness, and caring responsibilities.
* Work with individuals to co-produce a simple personalised support plan to address the person's health and wellbeing needs based on the person's priorities, interests, values, cultural and religious/faith needs and motivations.
* Provide information on what people can do from the groups, activities, and services they are being connected to.
* Provide information on what the person can do for themselves to improve their health and wellbeing.
* Physically introduce people to appropriate community groups and activities, peer support groups, or statutory services, ensuring they are comfortable, feel valued, and respected.
* Provide follow-up support to the person to ensure they are happy, able to engage, feel included, and that they are receiving good support.
* Help people maintain or regain independence through living skills, adaptations, enablement approaches, and simple safeguards.
* Where people may be eligible for a personal health budget, help them to explore this option as a way of providing funded, personalised support to be independent, including helping people to gain skills for meaningful employment, where appropriate.
* Seek advice and support from the GP supervisor and/or identified individual(s) to discuss safeguarding concerns and follow PCN safeguarding policies around reporting and/or escalating concerns.
* Seek advice and support from the GP supervisor and/or identified individual(s) to discuss concerns outside the scope of the social prescribing link workers' practice and make appropriate onward referrals.
Supporting the community offer
* Develop supportive relationships with local VCSE organisations, community groups, and statutory services, to understand their offer and make timely, appropriate and supported referrals.
* Create strong links with local agencies to utilise existing networks and build on existing provision.
* Work collectively with all local partners to ensure community groups are accessible and sustainable.
* Work with commissioners and local partners to identify and share information on unmet diverse needs within the community and gaps in community provision.
* Support the development of community groups and assets that promote diversity and inclusion.
* Encourage people who have been connected to community support through social prescribing to volunteer or to start their own activities and groups.
* Support existing local volunteering schemes to strengthen community resilience and explore potential to develop a team of volunteers to provide buddying support, peer support or to start new community-based groups or activities.
Person Specification
Personal Attributes & Abilities
* Ability to actively listen, empathise with people and provide personalised support in a non-judgemental way.
* Able to provide a culturally sensitive service, by supporting people from all backgrounds and communities, respecting lifestyles and diversity.
* Commitment to reducing health inequalities and proactively working to reach people from diverse communities.
* Able to support people in a way that inspires trust and confidence, motivating others to reach their potential, adapting to individual levels of activation and health literacy.
* Ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, with people, their families, carers, community groups, partner agencies, and stakeholders, adapting communication styles accordingly.
* Commitment to collaborative working with all local agencies (including VCSE organisations and community groups). Able to work with others to reduce hierarchies and find creative solutions to community issues.
* Can demonstrate personal accountability, emotional resilience and ability to work well under pressure.
Skills and Knowledge
* Knowledge of the personalised care approach. Utilises the evidence base for social prescribing interventions and activities.
* Understanding of the wider determinants of health, including social, economic, and environmental factors and their impact on communities, individuals, their families, and carers.
* Understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity, and inclusion.
* Knowledge of community development approaches including asset-based community development and community resilience.
* Knowledge of IT systems, including ability to use word processing skills, emails, and the internet to create simple plans and reports.
* Able to work from an asset-based approach, building on existing community and personal assets.
* Understanding of the needs of small volunteer-led community groups and ability to contribute to supporting their development.
* Ability to organise, plan, and prioritise on own initiative, including when under pressure and meeting deadlines.
* High level of written and oral communication skills.
* Confidently approaches difficult conversations.
* Able to provide motivational coaching to support people's behaviour change.
Experience
* Experience of working directly in a community development context, adult health and social care, learning support or public health/health improvement (including unpaid work).
* Experience of supporting people, their families, and carers in a related role (including unpaid work).
* Experience of working with the VCSE sector (in a paid or unpaid capacity), including with volunteers and small community groups.
* Experience of data collection and using tools to measure the impact of services.
* Experience of partnership/collaborative working and of building relationships across a variety of organisations.
* Experience of supporting people with their mental health, either in a paid, unpaid or informal capacity.
* Ability to work flexibly and enthusiastically within a team or on own initiative.
* Knowledge of, and ability to work to, policies and procedures, including confidentiality, safeguarding, lone working, information governance, and health and safety.
* Have awareness and understanding of when it is appropriate or necessary to refer people back to other health professionals/agencies, when the person's needs are beyond the scope of the role.
Qualifications
* GCSE Grade A-C in Maths & English, or equivalent.
* NVQ Level 3, Advanced level or equivalent qualifications or working towards.
* Demonstrable commitment to professional and personal development.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Employer details
Employer name
Cumbria Health
Address
Millom Hospital
Lapstone Road
Millom
Cumbria
LA18 4BY
Employer's website
https://cumbriahealth.co.uk/
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