Social Prescriber - Havering Liberty PCN

Havering Health Ltd; Romford; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 37,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare organisation in Havering seeks a passionate Social Prescriber to connect individuals with community services, enhancing their health and wellbeing. You will work alongside GPs and community partners to create tailored support plans that address broader life challenges. The ideal candidate has strong interpersonal skills, experience in social prescribing, and is committed to ongoing professional development. Competitive salary ranges from £28,000 to £37,000 based on experience.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 2 years working experience as a social prescriber.
• Experience in a multi-professional team environment.
• Ability to handle sensitive and confidential information.

Responsibilities

• Build professional relationships with patients and their families.
• Prepare personalized care plans emphasizing individual needs.
• Promote social prescribing and self-management strategies.

Skills

Interpersonal skills

Communication skills

Organisational skills

Empathy

Team player

Advanced IT skills

Education

NVQ level 2 or equivalent

Tools

EMIS

Microsoft Office Suite

Job description

Social Prescriber - Havering Liberty PCN

Are you passionate about empowering individuals to take charge of their health and wellbeing? As a Social Prescriber, you’ll play a vital role in connecting people with community-based services and activities that enrich lives beyond clinical care. Working closely with GPs, health professionals and voluntary sector partners, you’ll help individuals navigate challenges such as isolation, anxiety, housing, employment or long-term conditions by linking them to non-medical support tailored to what matters most to them. This is your chance to make a real difference where it counts at the heart of the community.

Main duties of the job

As a Social Prescriber you will build a professional and trusting relationship with the patient, their family and carers, and understand their unique needs and priorities. The Social Prescriber will prepare a care plan which focuses on what matters most to the individual, identifying the wider issues impacting their health.

About us

Havering Liberty Primary Care Network

We are a collaborative neighbourhood healthcare network of five General Practices serving the population with an extended multi-disciplinary team seeking to provide accessible, patient-centred and high-quality primary care services that promote the health and well‑being of our community and our workforce.

The PCN supports numerous innovative projects, looking to improve the health and well‑being of our community, e.g. Social Prescriber projects supporting High Intensity Users, bereaved family/friends of recently deceased patients and identifying carers to complete welfare checks.

The Leadership Team of Havering Liberty PCN is headed by the Clinical Director. This team includes the Strategy and Transformation Manager and the PCN Operations Manager and Digital Facilitator working in collaboration with Leads for each practice within the PCN The PCN receives support from Havering Health Ltd, its GP Federation, which employs the PCN workforce. The GP Federation plays a crucial role in providing innovative, high‑quality and responsible healthcare services to the residents of Havering.

Job responsibilities

The ideal candidate will possess exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, coupled with strong organisational abilities, patience and empathy. They should have substantial experience as a social prescriber, having worked in health, social care or the voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) sector, with at least two years of direct engagement with individuals, families or carers.

The post holder will be fully supported in their training and professional development. From the outset you will be inducted into the role with full support of your colleagues, line manager and clinical supervisor. The post holder will be encouraged to attend any training courses that are relevant to the role.

Key Responsibilities

Service Delivery

Build a robust knowledge of health, social and third sector provision available within Havering and surrounding areas.

Promote social prescribing, its role in self‑management and the wider determinants of health.

Build relationships with key staff in GP practices within Liberty PCN. Attend relevant meetings and integrate as part of the wider network team, providing information and feedback on social prescribing matters.

Work proactively to develop strong links with all local agencies to encourage referrals, to recognise their requirements and enable a confident approach to making referrals.

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

Provide referral agencies with regular updates relating to social prescribing and include training for their staff to promote effective access to information and encourage appropriate referrals.

Work proactively in encouraging self‑referrals and connecting with all local communities, particularly those communities that statutory agencies may find hard to reach.

Personalised Care and Support

Build relationships with patients, their families and carers.

Meet people on a one‑to‑one basis, consulting in person or via the telephone giving people time to tell their stories and focus on what matters to them.

Build trust with the person, providing non‑judgemental support, respecting diversity and lifestyle choices.

Anticipate barriers to communication.

Be a friendly source of information about wellbeing and prevention approaches.

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

Communicate effectively with patients, families and carers recognising the need for alternative communication methods to overcome different levels of understanding, cultural background and preferred ways of communicating.

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 person’s 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. Provide follow‑up to ensure that they are happy, engaged, included and receiving good support.

When required and as appropriate, refer patients back to other health professionals within the PCN.

General Tasks

Produce accurate records of patient contact, consistent with legislation, policies and procedures.

Work closely with GP practices within the PCN to ensure that social prescribing referral codes are input into the clinical system and that the person's use of the NHS can be tracked, adhering to data protection legislation and data sharing agreements.

Understand and apply legal issues that support the identification of vulnerable and abused children and adults and be aware of statutory child/vulnerable patients health procedures and local guidance.

Work as part of the team to seek feedback, continually improve the service and contribute to business planning.

Undertake any tasks consistent with the level of the post and the scope of the role, ensuring that work is delivered in a timely and effective manner.

Duties may vary from time to time, without changing the general character of the post or the level of responsibility.

Job description

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.

Collaborative working relationships

Works within the primary care team, contributing to leadership of service evaluation and research to promote quality improvement activity.

Collaborates with multi‑disciplinary PCN team.

Use healthcare technologies to optimise service delivery, patients access, and continuity of care.

Management

Demonstrates understanding of the implications of national priorities for the team and/or service.

Uses resources effectively to manage patient treatment in line with local guidance and makes recommendations for changes where improvements can be made.

Follows professional and organisational policies.

Education, learning and development

It is the responsibility of the employee to comply with all organisational and statutory requirements (e.g. health and safety, infection control, equality and diversity, confidentiality, safeguarding adults and children, information governance).

Engages in annual appraisal, developing objectives to inform a Personal Development Plan, which may include 360‑degree appraisal and use of patient feedback.

Participate in teaching and training of medical, nursing, and all other practice staff.

Supports the practice staff and responds to requests for advice and assistance.

Complete all mandatory and statutory training required by the role.

Take responsibility for personal development, learning and performance and maintain education through attendance on any courses and/or study days necessary to ensure that professional development requirements are met.

Undertaking additional training where necessary to provide enhanced services and participate in training programmes implemented by the PCN/practices as part of this employment.

Understands and demonstrates the characteristics of a role model to members in the team and/or service.

Demonstrates an understanding of current educational policies relevant to working areas of practice and keeps up to date with relevant clinical practice.

Quality

Under supervision and support of GPs in the practice, the post‑holder will strive to maintain quality within the practices, and will:

• Participate in clinical governance activity and contribute to the improvement in quality of health outcomes through audit, risk management and Quality Improvement
• Alert other team members to concerns about risk, quality, and safety
• Participate in investigation of incidents and events as required
• Identify, apply, and disseminate research findings relating to own practice
• Collect data for audit purposes and use clinical audit to monitor quality in the service
• Contribute to the effectiveness of the team by reflecting on their own and team activities and making suggestions on ways to improve and enhance the team’s performance
• Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet patients needs
• Effectively manage own time, workload, and resources
• Meet timescales/deadlines for audits and written returns to ensure that the practice meets quality standards and receives the designated funding.

Confidentiality

In the performance of the duties outlined in this Job Description, the post‑holder will have access to confidential information relating to patients and their carers, practice staff and other healthcare workers. They may also have access to information relating to the Company as a business organisation. All information is to be regarded as strictly confidential.

Maintains confidentiality of any information concerning patients in accordance with current policy on information governance.

Demonstrates respect for privacy and confidentiality in all interactions with patients and the public.

Data Protection

This post has a requirement for confidentiality. If you are required to obtain, process and/or use information held electronically you should do 'it in a fair and lawful way. You should hold data only for the specific registered purpose and not use or disclose it in any way incompatible with such a purpose. Data must only be disclosed to authorised people or organisations as instructed. Breaches of confidence in relation to data will result in disciplinary action which may involve dismissal.

You must not at any time use the personal data held by the organisation for any purpose other than practice business and this must not be disclosed to a third party. If you are in any doubt regarding your responsibilities under the Data Protection Act 2018 you must contact your line manager or appropriate senior lead at the time.

Person Specification

Knowledge

• NHS Priorities and Issues
• Good working knowledge of Outlook, Word, Excel, Power point, Access
• Update and maintain efficient administration systems
• Maintain confidentiality/data protection
• Able to analyse systems to improve services

Qualifications

• NVQ level 2 or Grade A-C equivalent standard of literacy and numeracy

Experience

• Working in the role of a social prescriber for a minimum of 2 years
• Working in a multi-professional team environment.
• Handling sensitive and confidential information
• Working in an NHS environment
• Experience of using EMIS

Other

• Able to travel efficiently throughout the area of Havering Liberty PCN
• Commitment to continuing professional development
• Standard driving skills and access to own vehicle for work purposes

Skills

• Establish and maintain good working relationships
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Team Player
• Clear communication skills including excellent writing, data entry and presentation skills
• Able to construct and deliver clear information/instructions to others
• Able to multi-task
• Able to work without supervision and use own initiative
• Organise and prioritise own workload
• competency sufficient to
• communicate effectively with all staff and clients
• Demonstrates attention to detail, accuracy and numeracy skills
• Advanced level IT skills

Demonstration of PCN Values

• Patient centred care and health equity
• Sustainability and efficiency
• Collaboration and team working
• Quality and excellence
• Inclusivity and respect
• Accountability and integrity

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenses 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.

£28,000 to £37,000 a year Inclusive and dependent on experience.