Social prescribing
What we’re doing
- This work is developing significantly due to the impact of COVID-19 and has huge potential to integrate with other parts of the health system during the next year and play a role in COVID-19 recovery.
- During 2020/21 the project has engaged StreetGames to lead on this activity and they will be working with four colleges in the three localities across Greater Manchester: Xaverian Sixth Form College, Bolton College, The Manchester College and Winstanley College
- Staff training will be available and social prescribing champions will be appointed in each college
- Regular meetings will take place to ensure that the three link workers and champions are working together to establish a referral process for young people
- A local directory of activities/opportunities will be developed as a referral resource
- We will be extending this work to July 2022 with an aim to kickstart youth social prescribing in two further localities from January 2022 based on the learning from cohort one
Our approach
- Currently in Greater Manchester there is a growing social prescribing workforce funded through the NHS and co-ordinated through NHS and VCSE partnerships. The current landscape is mainly focussed on 18+year olds with some areas working from 16+ and others currently engaging families. However, there are currently no Link Workers employed with a focus on young people
- Our proposal is to focus on three Greater Manchester localities (Bolton, Wigan, Manchester) and up to four colleges to trial a new approach to social prescribing that brings the NHS, VCSE and colleges together in a collaboration to support the mental health needs of young people
Next steps
StreetGames will:
- Host eight regular project meetings with the four colleges and associated link workers and partners
- Develop a short, recorded video about the project
- Undertake a simple training needs analysis of college staff and link workers
- Deliver a range of training workshops to meet training needs identified