Social Prescribing Team LeaderNHS

Job summary

Are you looking to take your first steps into a management career within a community health care role or have you got the transferable skills - supervision, patient and community experience to join our Social Prescribing Team Leaders?

We are looking to recruit a Social Prescribing Team Leader but are willing to consider potential individuals with the right mix of skills looking to transfer into a new career area or an individual with good experience who is ready to take on their next career progression.

The post holder will be responsible for providing leadership to the Social Prescribing Link Workers in the neighbourhood team. This will include support with training and development, ongoing monitoring of capacity and providing supervision for the Link Workers if necessary. Social Prescribing is now delivered in all three West Lancashire neighbourhoods and therefore will provide an excellent opportunity for an individual to be involved in developing the operational aspects of the service across the borough.

As well as providing leadership to the Social Prescribing team the post holder will manage a caseload of clients through assessment to onward-referral, working with clients in the practice that have been referred by the GP.

Main duties of the job

The role requires extensive liaison with statutory and non-statutory services, to both generate referrals into the service and support access to relevant local services, so that seamless and joined up local services are provided for the individual.

In addition, the post holder will contribute to the development of the service and will participate in support, supervision and training as required.

The main focus for the post holder is to understand the operational delivery requirements and to support the Service Lead to ensure, quality of provision, team supervision and representation of the sector at neighbourhood level

Take referrals from and make referrals to a wide range of agencies within Primary Care Network

Co-produce personalised support plans with individuals, their families and carers to take control of their wellbeing, live independently and improve their health outcomes.

Developing trusting relationships by giving people time and focus on what matters to me.

Take a holistic approach, based on the persons priorities and the wider determinants of health.

It is vital that you have a strong awareness and understanding of when it is appropriate or necessary to refer people back to other health professionals/agencies, when what the person needs is beyond the scope of the link worker role e.g. when there is a mental health need requiring a qualified practitioner.

Job description

Be proactive in developing strong links with all local agencies to encourage referrals, recognising what they need to be confident in the service to make appropriate referrals.

Work in partnership with all local agencies to raise awareness of social prescribing and how partnership working can reduce pressure on statutory services, improve health outcomes and enable a holistic approach to care.

Work with the practice and community staff, to identify and support individuals at risk of loss of independence or hospital admission as a result of inadequate social support.

Seek regular feedback about the quality of service and impact of social prescribing on referral agencies.

Be proactive in encouraging self-referrals and connecting with all local communities, particularly those communities that statutory agencies may find hard to reach.

Provide referral agencies with regular updates about social prescribing, including training for their staff and how to access information to encourage appropriate referrals.

Provide feedback to referral agencies if it is found that the individuals that they are referring to the scheme do not meet the requirements

Ensure that referrals received are distributed amongst the team in an equitable manner

Ensure that the Social Prescribing Link Workers are picking up referrals in an appropriate timeframe as well as keeping case notes up to date and accurate.

Monitor the capacity within the team and ensure that referral agencies are updated with any delay in service provision.

Provide personalised support.

Meet people on a one-to-one basis, making home visits where appropriate within organisations policies and procedures. Give people time to tell their stories and focus on what matters to me.

Help people identify the wider issues that impact on their health and wellbeing, such as debt, poor housing, being unemployed, loneliness and caring responsibilities.

Develop a comprehensive knowledge of wider support services for people with non-clinical needs that impact on their wellbeing and health outcomes, such as social isolation, wellbeing, housing, unemployment, welfare benefits.

Help people maintain or regain independence through living skills, adaptations enablement approaches and simple safeguards.

Work with individuals to co-produce a simple personalised support plan based on the persons priorities, interests, values and motivations including what they can expect from the groups, activities and services they are being connected to and what the person can do for themselves to improve their health and wellbeing.

Where appropriate, physically introduce people to community groups, activities and statutory services, ensuring they are comfortable. Follow up to ensure they are happy, able to engage, included and receiving good support.

The post holder will be required to have awareness and training in relation to relevant safeguarding policies and procedures and to raise any concerns regarding safeguarding on the individual to the attention of the relevant nominated lead within the team.

Support community groups and VCSE organisations to receive referrals.

Forge strong links with local VCSE organisations, community and neighbourhood level groups, utilising their networks and building on whats already available to create a map or menu of community groups and assets.

Develop supportive relationships with local VCSE organisations, community groups and statutory services, to make timely, appropriate and supported referrals for the person being introduced.

Work collectively with all local partners to ensure community groups are strong and sustainable.

Ability to represent the VCSE sector and Social Prescribing at neighbourhood meetings, providing updates and contributing to conversations about improving health inequalities for a whole population with other partners in the neighbourhood.

Work with GPs, PCNs and wider Multi-Disciplinary teams as required.

Work with commissioners and local partners to identify unmet needs within the community and gaps in community provision and support development of new groups and services where needed.

Encourage people who have been connected to community support through social prescribing to volunteer and give their time freely to others, in order to build their skills and confidence, and strengthen community resilience.

Ensure that local community groups and VCSE organisations being referred to have basic procedures in place for ensuring that vulnerable individuals are safe and, where there are safeguarding concerns, work with all partners to deal appropriately with issues. Where such policies and procedures are not in place, support groups to work towards this standard before referrals are made to them.

Check that community groups and VCSE organisations meet in insured premises and that health and safety requirements are in place. Where such policies and procedures are not in place, support groups to work towards this standard before referrals are made to them.

Support local groups to act in accordance with information governance policies and procedures, ensuring compliance with the GDPR.

General tasks include:

Work sensitively with people, their families and carers to capture key information, enabling tracking of the impact of social prescribing on their health and wellbeing.

Encourage people, their families and carers to provide feedback and to share their stories about the impact of social prescribing on their lives.

Support referral agencies to provide appropriate information about the person they are referring. Use the case management system to track the persons progress.

Work closely with GP practices within the PCN to ensure that they are receiving appropriate feedback about the people they have referred.

Assist with monthly or quarterly data collection and submission to the PCNs and CCG for governance and performance purposes.

Manage own workload through planning and organising own work schedule, obtaining and organising the necessary information and resources.

About us

Employment will be with Out of Hours West Lancashire CIC Limited (OWLS). We host roles on behalf of the three West Lancashire Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and their member practices.

OWLS is a small GP owned and led not-for-profit primary care organisation run by GPs and health professionals. As a not-for-profit organisation all the money we generate through service contracts is reinvested in providing patient care.

We were founded in the 90s by a small group of GPs to provide high quality out of hours services. In 2017, we became the West Lancashire GP Federation. The Federation supports and provides services directly and with partners, for West Lancashire GP practices and provides a vehicle to bid for and provide primary care services.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the West Lancashire Social Prescribing Team as a full-time Team Leader. The small, close-knit Social Prescribing Team sits within OWLS CIC West GP Federation and the service receives referrals from GP practices from across West Lancashire.