Simply Connect commissioned by the Greater London Authority to support VCSE sector in the delivery of social prescribing

The Mayor of London wants to ensure that every Londoner has access to a social prescription by 2028, and believes a partnership approach across health, social care and voluntary sectors can grow social prescribing across the capital.

We’re already working with over 10,000 voluntary and community sector organisations across London, and are delighted to have been chosen to research what support the sector needs to enable successful delivery of social prescribing. We will then develop toolkits and resources to support this.

Sirinda Bhandal from Simply Connect says:

“We’re delighted to be working with Greater London Authority (GLA) to help implement the Mayor’s vision of making social prescribing available to everyone, but we can’t ignore the very real threat the COVID pandemic is posing to the current social prescribing delivery model and the repercussions will be felt for many months to come”.

We know the COVID-19 pandemic is having a massive impact on how social prescribing is being delivered

The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the social prescribing landscape – many community activities are not running, have closed their doors and are struggling to survive.

This pandemic has also flagged up the fragility of many of the community services that were taking referrals – Charity Finance Group reported that 68 small charities closed down after the first two weeks. Smaller VCSE organisations struggle to cope with capacity having furloughed staff, and many are now working from home. Many of their volunteers are vulnerable people who are self-isolating.

Lots have had to close their doors to social prescribing referrals as they work out how they are going to survive the crisis. In Hackney, 83 VCSE organisations contacted Hackney CVS for advice as they were worried about how they were going to keep running.

And what about the aftermath? The recovery phase is going to place heavier demand on already stretched services.

Sirinda says;

“We feel this pandemic will leave a legacy which really throws into the spotlight how fragile the current social prescribing infrastructure is. In the aftermath, demand for preventative services is set to increase, as people come out of isolation, needing even more support.

Investment into the VCSE sector is going to be critical if it is to be relied upon by the NHS and other statutory services to reduce dependency on primary, secondary care and adult social services.”

 

We want to hear your views

• How do you think the pandemic is going to affect social prescribing?
• What will be the lasting impact on the voluntary sector?
• And what support will they need?

Please leave your comments in the box below, or email us at hello@simplyconnectsolutions.co.uk to share your views.

Please also look out for a survey coming out from us soon – we will feed your views back to the GLA.

 

The GLA engaged with many VCSE organisations in developing Next Steps to Social Prescribing in late 2018/early 2019.

Nathan Winch, Senior Project Officer, Greater London Authority, says;

“Through this engagement several themes arose relating to what would be valuable to the VCSE sector – which included better engagement with commissioners and stakeholders. We hope that the package of materials, guides and good practice templates being developed by Simply Connect will be of value to the VCSE in this incredibly challenging climate we’re now in.”