Join Solihull Healthcare Partnership — Where Your Work Truly Matters
Solihull Healthcare Partnership (SHP) is more than a GP organisation. We are a community of people driven by a shared purpose: to deliver exceptional, person-centred care to over 56,000 patients across Solihull and Shirley. Working from seven local surgeries, we bring together the best of traditional general practice with the innovation, resilience, and opportunity of a modern, forward-thinking partnership.
Every member of our team ranging from clinical, operational, administrative, and managerial plays a vital role in shaping the future of primary care. Supported by a central team covering HR, IT, finance, governance and communications, our practice teams are empowered to focus on what matters most: delivering compassionate, high-quality care that changes lives.
We believe that General Practice is the heart of the NHS, and we are committed to evolving, improving, and transforming the way care is delivered in our neighbourhood. If you want to be part of an organisation that values your contribution, invests in your growth, and encourages you to make a meaningful impact, SHP is the place to build your career.
Purpose of the Role
Social prescribing is a vital and growing part of modern primary care. Within Primary Care Networks (PCNs), it offers a holistic, person-centred approach that recognises the powerful impact of social, emotional, and practical factors on health. By connecting people to meaningful community-based support, Social Prescribing Link Workers help individuals take control of their wellbeing while reducing pressure on GP services and strengthening the resilience of the wider health system.
Why Social Prescribing Matters at SHP
•Tackles Wider Determinants of Health — Addressing issues such as debt, housing, loneliness, and low-level mental health needs helps improve long-term wellbeing, not just symptoms.
•Relieves GP Workload — Link Workers provide dedicated time and continuity for patients with complex social needs, enabling clinicians to focus on medical care.
•Delivers Strong Social Value — Evidence shows significant Social Return on Investment through reduced A&E attendances, hospital admissions, and GP appointments.
•Reduces Health Inequalities — Social prescribing supports the NHS Core20PLUS5 approach by reaching vulnerable, marginalised, and underserved groups.
What Social Prescribing Link Workers Do?
•Take a whole-population approach — Supporting people who may be lonely, have complex social needs, low-level mental health concerns, or long-term conditions.
•Co-produce personalised care plans — Helping individuals identify what matters to them and shaping simple, achievable wellbeing goals.
•Connect people to community support — Linking patients to practical, social, and emotional support including advice services, arts and culture, physical activity, nature-based activities and more.
•Use coaching and motivational interviewing — Empowering people to build confidence, take control and make sustainable changes.
•Strengthen community capacity — Working with VCSE partners, local authorities and community groups to identify gaps, develop new offers and support long-term sustainability.
•Take referrals from the PCN patients and from a wide range of agencies, including pharmacies, health and care multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs), the emergency services, legal and welfare advice services, VCSE organisations, and through self-referrals (list not exhaustive).
•Provide personalised support to individuals, their families and carers to access community-based activities and support that can help them to take control of their health and wellbeing through co-producing a simple personalised care and support plan and introducing people to appropriate activities, groups and services as described above.
•Work with appropriate supervision as part of the PCN to manage and prioritise your own caseload, in accordance with needs, priorities and support required by individuals. Refer people back to other health professionals/agencies, as appropriate or necessary.
•Build ongoing relationships with local infrastructure organisations, community activities, and support services to increase knowledge of the community support offer, and work collaboratively to develop effective partnership working to support the community offer to be sustainable, identifying gaps in provision, nurturing community assets and sharing intelligence on gaps or problems with commissioners and local authorities
•Increase the strength and capacity of the community, enabling local VCSE organisations and community groups to both receive social prescribing referrals and to make referrals to social prescribing link workers.
•Educate non-clinical and clinical staff within PCN MDTs on the community support offer, how and when patients can access it, and the value of non-medical community-based interventions.This may include verbal or written advice and guidance.
•Promote social prescribing as an approach across the PCN and wider agencies, including its role in supported self-management, in addressing health inequalities and the wider determinants of health, reducing pressure on statutory services, improving access to healthcare and improving health outcomes, and in taking a holistic approach to care.
Key Tasks
Referrals
•Promote social prescribing as an approach across the PCN by attending relevant MDT meetings to build relationships and developing links with local agencies.
•Proactively develop strong links with local agencies to encourage appropriate referrals
•Provide referral agencies with regular updates about social prescribing, including training for their staff and how to access information to encourage appropriate referrals.
•Seek regular feedback about the quality of service and impact of social prescribing on referral agencies.
•Proactively encourage equitable participation in social prescribing through taking self-referrals and connecting with diverse local communities through a range of methods, particularly communities that statutory agencies may find hard to reach and where health inequalities are most prevalent.
Provide personalised support.
•Meet people on a one-to-one basis, making home visits and visits to community organisation where appropriate and within organisations’ policies and procedures.
•Use appropriate judgement to ascertain the number and length of sessions required, responding to the needs of the individual and their circumstances, for 6-10 contacts over 3 months.
•Give people time to tell their stories and focus on the question, ‘what matters to me’?
•Build trust and respect with the person, providing non-judgemental and non-discriminatory support, taking a strength-based approach that focuses on a person’s assets.
•Work with the person, their families and carers and consider how they can all be supported through social prescribing.
•Help people identify the wider issues that impact on their health and wellbeing, such as debt, poor housing, being unemployed, loneliness and caring responsibilities.
•Work with individuals to co-produce a simple personalised support plan to address the person’s
SHP - shp.hr@nhs.net
