Simply Chat – September 2021

Headlines from our September meeting (held 27 September 2021)

 

 

  1. Cross-sector partnerships to deliver social prescribing

Sirinda (our MD) shared a presentation about a new project we’re working on, that brings together partners from across health, public sector and the VCSE sector, to deliver a co-ordinated social prescribing system on behalf of Kent & Medway ICS.

Sirinda shared the vision for this project, and the importance of the VCSE sector having a place as an equal partner in this project.

Monica Boulton, Social Prescribing Manager at Red Zebra Community Solutions in East Kent, also talked about Red Zebra’s role as a VCSE Lead Partner in this project.

Considerations

  • VCSE infrastructure plays a key role in engaging, supporting and representing the VCSE sector in social prescribing – maximising the opportunities and highlighting the challenges.
  • Social prescribing is different in every area, depending upon funding, commissioning, and VCSE partners involved
  • Important to try and ‘join up’ social prescribing in areas to avoid replication, ensure secure and safe pathways into services, and to provide a more cohesive service to residents.

 

  1. Engaging with the VCSE sector to update service information & respond to social prescribing referrals

Monica spoke about Red Zebra’s work to keep local charities and VCSE organisations engaged in social prescribing, and ways to ensure organisations keep their service information up to date on systems, and to respond to incoming referrals.

It was acknowledged across the group that this is an ongoing challenge, and ideas were shared for helping with this.

Considerations

  • Introducing more notifications, prompts and alerts within the social prescribing system to guide organisations to take actions (now part of Simply Connect software development roadmap)
  • Recruit a volunteer to support with centrally updating information on behalf of organisations
  • Run online engagement/information sessions with your groups, so they can learn how to get involved in social prescribing locally
  • Include information about the service in existing communications i.e. newsletters, Forum/Network meetings, social media etc.

 

 

Join our next Simply Chat: Thursday 4 November, 11.30am

(re-arranged from 28 October, as originally advertised)