Hello everyone

We can't believe we are already halfway through January and that our 4th International Social Prescribing Network is only seven weeks away.

Our conference programme is now available to download here and will be updated each week as we layer more details into the programme. A big thank you to all the speakers who are joining us. The conference will take a good look at inequalities, from a system perspective and from a very local perspective. We will be giving you inspiration, knowledge and ideas, as well as opportunities to meet other people in your position, the latest research, the latest workforce developments and the experience of people who have really got stuck into innovating with social prescribing. You may be new to social prescribing and setting it up in another country - we will be looking at the different models of social prescribing from around the world - who the link workers are, how the models work, how the funding is occurring.

We are delighted to welcome back Harula Ladd who will be our poet in residence. Last year Harula sat in different conference sessions and summed them up in a series of poems that really captured the essence of the discussions. I can't wait to read this year's poems, what a great way to capture the feel of the conference each year!

We are also applying for CPD accreditation so you will be able to make this your official CPD for the year and all the conference sessions will be recorded, so you can go back and watch the sessions you were unable to attend.

Finally, if you submitted a research abstract or you submitted an entry for the Social Prescribing Network awards, then you should have heard back from us by now, please let us know if you haven't.

So what are you waiting for? - Book your ticket now!

I leave you with one of the Harula Ladds poems from last year called Navigation

Navigation

We don’t have to have

All the answers,

We just need to ask

The right questions.

Replace ‘What’s the matter?’

With ‘What matters to you?’

And a map begins to appear.

Not in a linear OS kind of way

More like a constellation,

Beautiful and unique,

That helps to light the way.

Like sailors used to navigate

By looking up at the sky,

Feeling the wind’s direction,

Setting sails to tack

Their unique course.

Keep Social Prescribing!

Marie

Co-Chair, Social Prescribing Network

Social Prescribing Day 2022

This year the 3rd Social Prescribing Day will be March 10th. It has been fantastic to see how this movement has grown each year and has provided a platform to really shine a light and celebrate the social prescribing that is happening around the UK and around the world.

Previous Social Prescribing Days have seen so much activity that this time around we will be celebrating social prescribing over a whole week, starting on the 4th March. There is a suite of resources available for promoting #SocialPrescribingDay which you can access here.

So download the logo that we are displaying here and personalise it for your scheme, then shout about the great work you are involved with. Use #SocialPrescribingDay for any social media so we can track the impact and reach. If you are doing something special, let us know at @Socialprescrib2

Understanding the importance of food link worker training

We have now run three of our free link worker courses on 'Understanding the importance of food'. We have really enjoyed delivering the courses on behalf of The College of Medicine and have received really positive feedback from attendees so far. The course dips into issues such as malnutrition, food poverty and supporting weight management as well as behaviour change theories, professional boundaries and self-care for link workers. Some of our attendees have described the course as very informative on understanding how food impacts our bodies and giving them tools and confidence to open up conversations around food and support their clients, as well as navigating and understanding professional boundaries.

The course is now CPD accredited by CPD UK. We have some spaces left on next weeks course which runs in the morning on the 24th and 31st of January. You can find out more and book here. More course dates will be announced for March, April and May 2022.

Link worker training

Bromley By Bow has two courses available for Link Workers this year.

Introduction to Social Welfare Advice and Welfare Benefits for Social Prescribing Link Workers
Understanding the welfare benefits system and how to work with clients with benefits advice needs. This course is delivered by the Bromley by Bow Centre and the Benefits Training Co

The course price includes 12 months support for link workers from the Benefits Training Co. Three 2.5-hour live interactive online sessions, 25th January, 1st and 8th February. £145+VAT. Group booking discounts are available. More information and booking is available at Eventbrite.

Essential Skills and Knowledge for Social Prescribing Link Workers
Designed for experienced and more recently employed link workers to gain an understanding of supporting vulnerable people in the current context, including remotely; Behaviour change and motivational interviewing approaches; Peer supervision and reflective practice

Three pre-recorded tutorials and three 2.5-hour live interactive online sessions, 10th, 17th and 24th February. £119+VAT. Group booking discounts are available. More information and booking is available at Eventbrite.

Reports and evaluations

Understanding social prescribing in Wales: a mixed methods study (2021)

Professor Carolyn Wallace and the team at the Wales School for Social Prescribing Research (WSSPR) and PRIME Centre Wales, based at the University of South Wales (USW), have been working in partnership with Data Cymru and Public Health Wales to quantify and describe the functions of social prescribing in Wales. The study was funded and coordinated by Public Health Wales within the context of Welsh Government (2020) ‘Connected Communities: a strategy for tackling loneliness and social isolation and building stronger social connections’.

Conference supporters

Thank you to our academic partner University of Essex, their project funder Interreg and the rest of our conference partners, The College of Medicine, National Academy for Social Prescribing and NHS England and NHS Improvement, Personalised Care Group

Do you have something you would like use to share? Tweet us @SocialPrescrib2 or send an email to socialprescribing@outlook.com

You can sign up to our newsletter and access resources on our website: www.socialprescribingnetwork.com

View our newsletter archive at:
https://bit.ly/SPNnewsletterarchive

The SPN is part of the College of Medicine which is a registered charity in England and Wales (1145676) and is a registered company (07081291). The College of Medicine’s registered office is c/0 West & Berry, Mocatta House, Trafalgar Place, Brighton, BN1 4DU.