Southwark Social Prescribing Network

1. Southwark Social Prescribing Network

2. What we mean by Social Prescribing The aim of social prescribing is to help people live their lives as well as possible, with a focus on supporting them to take control of and to improve their health, wellbeing and social welfare. Social prescribing links people into personal networks as well as practical and emotional support within communities and the voluntary sector. This is often via their GP, nurse or other primary care professional.​ ​

3. Why is this important for Southwark? • Over the years lots of ‘social prescribing’ has grown organically across Southwark so we have lots of different models working across the borough; however, we don’t have a robust understanding of how effective, resilient and sustainable these are • We know we are not getting optimal benefits for the Southwark population within the current system; particularly for people who have complex needs • There is a need to better link up health and care services to the VCS, so we can keep people well and better connected within their local communities • Many people with long-term conditions have social oriented needs that cannot be addressed in a clinical consultation are better addressed within the VCS and through community connectedness • Health and care professionals are often not aware of what is available, how to refer to activities and support in the community, and be assured that the appropriate governance and safeguarding policies are in place • Many people with a long-term condition or disability, as well as their carers, could be better supported to actively manage their own health and wellbeing

4. What’s the purpose of the Network? Southwark Local Care Network (which is a collaborative of local health, care and VCS partners) are working to co-design and develop a more robust and coordinated model of social prescribing so that we can ensure its sustainability into the future.    We want to work with local voluntary and community sector representatives and health and care professionals to design this model together through a series of networks.    This will build on some work we did with a group of VCS partners in 2017/18, and small scale test and learns we’ve been doing in some of our neighbourhoods. We have had some initial funding from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity to support this work, and the aim is to develop a model which will form the basis of a further investment case to the Charity towards the end of this year.  This will initially be focused on supporting people with long-term conditions within our and across our neighbourhoods, with a view to developing an evidence base for expanding to other population groups.

5. Network plan • Network 1: The current provision of social prescribing initiatives in Southwark for people with long-term conditions - what is working and where are the gaps? • Network 2 (May): What outcomes we are seeking to achieve for this cohort of people through social prescribing and how can they be measured/tracked? • Network 3 (September): What would the optimal referral/access pathway and client journey be and what digital platforms we can use to support this? • Network 4 (November): Exploring funding and development of a business model for Social Prescribing in Southwark

6. Who has oversight of this? Southwark Social Prescribing Project group Nicola Weaver – Clinical Champion for Social Prescribing, Southwark Local Care Network Rachel Henry – Director of Development and Partnerships, Community Southwark Meaghan Morris – Project Support Officer, Southwark and Lambeth LCNs Rosa Parker – Partnerships Coordinator, Healthwatch Southwark and Healthwatch Lambeth Hayley Sloan – Director of Delivery, Southwark Local Care Network Louise Flynn – Development and Delivery Manager, QHS/LCN Harprit Lally – Development and Delivery Manager, IHL/LCN Kate Langford – Programme Manager, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity

7. Design Principles • Work undertaken to date within LCNs has identified initial design principles for this work, which will need to be further fleshed out as the work progresses:    • Builds on, enhances and takes into account existing social prescribing activities and approaches • Recognise and foster the diversity of the VCS in Southwark    • Develop thriving place-based social support networks in clusters/neighbourhoods; enabling community assets to develop connections and relationships, and to share resources  • Offer a mix of formal and informal support dependent on individuals’ needs   • Be underpinned by a shared outcomes framework to measure impact, supported by integrated IT and data    • Develop a new type of collaborative relationship with commissioners, one that enables the VCS to flourish and addresses the power imbalance between statutory and VCS partners  • Align and connect existing community connectors/navigators to act as a network within a geographical area (mitigating loss of institutional knowledge/operating in silo) • Develop a payment model that supports the VCS to thrive and be sustainable.

8. Design Principles • The LCNs and Southwark Social Care are also working to develop an aligned approach to social prescribing that delivers both health and social care strategic priorities. This work has identified several additional principles and objectives to support social prescribing across Southwark:  • Developing a core offer for support and activities delivered by the voluntary and community sector that meets both health and care needs   • Shared set of outcomes that build on the VCS Southwark Common Outcomes Framework; aligned to Bridges to Health and Wellbeing   • Reducing health and care costs   • No wrong door – service users should be able to access the support they need through the community hubs, community health hubs, or other referral pathways (e.g. general practice)  • Responsive to local need and neighbourhood development   • Maintain diversity and uniqueness of the local voluntary and community sector • Embeds a strengths-based approach that promotes increased independence and wellbeing   • Addresses health and wellbeing inequalities  • Demonstrates impact; supporting a shift in resources towards early intervention and prevention. 

9. How it fits into the bigger picture

10. Neighbourhood networks

11. Neighbourhood networks • Health, social care and voluntary sector organisations in Southwark LCNs are working together to develop integrated neighbourhood networks. • There are 9 neighbourhood geographies in Southwark that aim to: • Bring together general practice, community physical and mental health, social care services and the voluntary and community sector to support local peoples’ health, social and emotional needs • Enable cross-boundary connections, relationships, culture change and new ways of working, tapping into local assets • Deliver more personalised and joined up care for local people, so that as much care and support is delivered as close to home as possible • We have started to build the foundations for integrated neighbourhood networks by establishing four ‘test and learn’ learning partnerships in Dulwich, Peckham, Rotherhithe and the Walworth Triangle to explore what neighbourhood working might look like. • We want to further develop this by exploring how connectors, link workers and navigators can help bring our model to life, can support self-management for local people and foster links between statutory and non-statutory services.

12. World Café – where we are now Person 1: A lady with severe anxiety, frequent 999 caller. Physically able but needs someone to go with her to leave the house. No friends or family.  Person 2: A man with dementia who has capacity to refuse support at home but clearly not coping. Supportive family but isolated. Person 3: A man with COPD, smoker.  No hobbies. Person 4: A lady with diabetes who has just retired. Person 5:  A lady with diabetes and COPD, lives with her husband who has dementia.  Supportive family but they live 2 hours away. 

13. Consider these questions:  •How at the moment would this person be supported? •What kind of Social Prescribing do they need?  •What activities are available? •What navigation support is available? •What works well and what doesn’t? •How do they access the support? •Where are the trigger points when the person is most receptive?

14. Understanding gaps: what works less well On your tables, share your experiences or situations where you feel social prescribing hasn’t or doesn’t work as well as you would like. Consider: •Demographics – are there groups of individuals missing our or harder to reach? •Access Points – what is someone sees a locum GP unfamiliar with SP in Southwark?  Do they miss out? Where might there be other challenges with access? •Where are the gaps in service provision?  •Where does social prescribing not work?  What might the reasons for this be?

15. Thank you!