This Autumn and Winter we're offering voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) colleagues in our regional Thriving Communities Network the opportunity to take part in professional development with our training partner Yes We Can CIC. 

We're running a series of four Action Learning Sets (ALS) from the end of October through to February that aim to give you time and space to think, plan, take action and learn with your peers to work through current problems and plan for the future. And also to connect with each other and grow stronger networks in the region.

We know time to reflect and work with peers on tricky problems can be in short supply for people in management and leadership roles. Our intention is to rebalance the scales.

You can find out more about what Action Learning Sets are all about in this information pack. And secure your free place on a Set at the link below. Bookings close on Friday, October 14th.

Tuesday, November 1st, 10am - 11.30am via Zoom  

The Thriving Communities Fund supported local voluntary, community, faith, and social enterprise projects that brought together place-based partnerships to improve and increase social prescribing community activities, especially for those people most impacted by Covid-19 and health inequalities.

In this webinar we are bringing together a selection of the organisations funded within the North East and Yorkshire to showcase their impact, highlight learning from working in place-based partnerships, and to discuss how they are developing their legacy work to ensure there is ongoing impact and sustainability.

This event is open to anyone with an interest in social prescribing. Register to join us below.  

Wednesday, November 23rd, 1.30pm - 3.00pm via Zoom

Are you a VCFSE organisation who wants to become more visible, connect with your local social prescribing link worker, or understand what they are looking for?

Or are you a link worker who wants to learn more about what organisations and activities are available in your community and how to refer into these?

In the first of these new connector sessions, which are being hosted in partnership with the NHSE Regional Learning Co-ordinator/PCN advisors David Cowan and Kate Pearce, we will bring together members of the Thriving Communities network from both the referrer and provider aspects of the social prescribing pathway to help make useful local connections and build strong local relationships to strengthen your social prescribing services.

This informal networking session will combine brief presentations on North East and Yorkshire projects where collaboration between link workers and the VCSE has proved fruitful, and then these will be followed with the opportunity to connect and collaborate in smaller local breakout rooms.

This event would be of particular interest to those in personalised care roles (social prescribing link workers, health and wellbeing coaches, and care co-ordinators) and representatives from the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector providing social prescribing activities.

A big thanks to everyone who joined us for our recent webinar - 'Understanding the social prescribing landscape and building collaboration at health system and local level.'

We brought together more than 100 representatives from the VCFSE, health and care sectors - including regional social prescribing leads and link workers from across the North East, North Cumbria and Yorkshire - to build understanding and have fruitful discussions about our regional social prescribing ecosystem.  

The event enabled attendees to increase collective understanding of the context in which social prescribing it is being applied within the NHS, raised awareness of the requirements of Primary Care Networks and NHS leads around social prescribing and collaborative working. It also provided information on local networks and learning and development opportunities to support stakeholder collaboration.

Resources including the full webinar recording and presentations can be found on the blog post. 

Digital Voice for Communities is a multi-award-winning community digital media organisation which has been working with marginalised communities across the North East for 15 years.

Thanks to a grant from the VCSE Mental Health Alliance (Open Mind Northumberland), Digital Voice was able to deliver its innovative DigitalMe project for people with experience of severe mental illness in partnership with Mental Health Concern and St. George’s Hospital in Morpeth.

Julie Nicholson, Managing Director of Digital Voice, explains more about the DigitalMe programme: “DigitalMe is our innovative programme which gives vulnerable groups or individuals the opportunity to share their lived experiences digitally. We target those groups who are digitally excluded for whatever reason and provide them with both the skills to convey their message and a suitable platform to disseminate it. Guided by our artists, individuals create digital avatars so that their anonymity is preserved. They then use that avatar to describe their experiences of difficult, often painful situations.”

A fund to help GP surgery patients and communities through social prescribing is still open to applications.

County Durham Community Foundation will manage the PHP Community Impact Fund for the region. The idea was piloted last year in Lincolnshire and Scotland, and funded by Primary Health Properties PLC (PHP).

Grants of up to £10,000 are available to charities and community groups that are focused on social prescribing and community wellbeing in County Durham, Tees Valley, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Gateshead and Cumbria. Activities must be delivered within a 10 mile radius of a PHP healthcare centre. A list of these centres can be found in the grant guidelines document.

Applications are invited that meet the following objectives:

• To fund social and charitable activities and services linked to the patients and communities of PHP healthcare centres.
• 
  To support the Practice Social Prescribing referral service and enable the ongoing provision of new and existing services.
• 
  To improve the health and wellbeing of patients and communities served by PHP healthcare centres.
• 
  To advance the education, promotion and protection of good health within the communities served by PHP healthcare centres.

Deadline: Friday 14th October 2022

Natural England has been commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), to undertake a research project to look at the potential to increase the provision of green social prescribing to improve people’s mental health through the Green social prescribing programme.  

There are two surveys: one for Social Prescribing Link Workers (SPLWs) to complete, and one for ‘green providers’ or other activity providers, where some or all of their activities are green or nature-based. Click on the links below to share your views before October 10th:

Green activity provider survey.

Social Prescribing Link Worker survey.

Please email luke.whaley@naturalengland.org.uk for queries about the surveys, or the Green Social Prescribing team inbox england.greensocialprescribing@nhs.net for further information about the NHS Green social prescribing programme.

NASP national partners, Arts Council England and Historic England, have recently published plans outlining how they will support health and wellbeing, including through social prescribing. Find out more: 

Arts Council England - Creative Heath and Wellbeing.

Historic England - Wellbeing and Heritage strategy.

Social prescribing link workers can help alleviate feelings of loneliness and social isolation by connecting people to activities and advice in their communities and beyond.

Earlier this year NASP arranged for Brad Gudger to spend time with Gay Palmer, a Social Prescriber Link Worker Team Lead at South Southwark Primary Care Network. Together they explored how social prescribing link workers can help support people experiencing loneliness and isolation through community connection.

They visit an Link Age UK community group in Southwark and speak to people about their experiences of social prescribing and how it has helped them. This short film highlights the unique role that link workers play in the health and wellbeing of our communities.

To keep up with all of the latest news and comment about the Thriving Communities programme, follow us on twitter! We will also be posting throughout our upcoming events on this page, so remember to tag us @vonnehwb. 

VONNE, as the North East regional VCSE infrastructure support organisation, is proud to be the regional lead for the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) Thriving Communities programme in the North East and Yorkshire. VONNE is delivering the programme alongside regional VCSE infrastructure partners across Yorkshire and Humber, and North Cumbria.