Social Prescribing Service

Our Social Prescribing team work closely with our GP practices to support their patients with their non-medical needs.

Social prescribing is a key component of Universal Personalised Care. It is an approach that connects people to activities, groups, and services in their community to meet the practical, social and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing.

Social prescribing link workers give people time, focusing on ‘what matters to me?’ to coproduce a simple personalised care and support plan, and support people to take control of their health and wellbeing. Social prescribing link workers also support existing community groups to be accessible and sustainable, and help people to start new groups, working collaboratively with all local partners. Social prescribing is an all-age, whole population approach that works particularly well for people who:

• have one or more long term conditions
• who need support with low level mental health issues
• who are lonely or isolated
• who have complex social needs which affect their wellbeing.

A standard model of social prescribing has been developed by NHS England in partnership with stakeholders, which shows the elements that need to be in place for effective social prescribing to happen.

Social prescribing complements other approaches in our local area such as active signposting, where existing staff in local agencies provide information to signpost people to services, using local knowledge and resource directories. The social prescribing link worker will enable patients to get access to the support they need when they need it. The support provided by the link worker could include developing skills to take responsibility for their wellbeing, meeting people and getting involved in the activities they enjoy or enabling them to access services to deal with day-to-day issues like housing, employment, benefits and debt.  

There are five ways to wellbeing as researched and developed by the new economic foundation namely:

• Connect
• Give
• Take Notice
• Keep Learning
• Be Active

Our link workers are able to support with all the above.

Referrals are made through our GP Practices to social prescribing link workers. Some patients can self-refer by contacting the GP practice receptionist and requesting a referral or through a GP or health professional whilst attending an appointment.

Useful Links

Please see below relevant services provided by Alliance that are available to the community.