Claire Sweeney, Healthy Lives Team Manager, Shropshire Council

The Board received the report of the Healthy Lives Team Manager – copy attached to the signed Minutes – which provided an update on the social prescribing offer and its development in Shropshire.  It described the programme and recent progress on the Adult Social Prescribing programme.  It also provided an update on demand management work focussing on reducing risk of falls, cardiovascular disease and supporting adult social care, new Simple Activation Question to demonstrate the increase in people being able to take action to improve their own wellbeing and in turn reducing healthcare utilisation, and the Winter Support Service which was mobilised across Shropshire to support winter pressures across the system.

The Healthy Lives Team Manager introduced and amplified her report and gave a presentation – copy of slides attached to the signed Minutes.  She gave an overview of the team and the service they delivered and to whom.  She then drew attention to the difference in referral numbers etc for adults and children in 2023 and touched on the outcomes.  She highlighted in particular the Pain Support Group which had been well received and they were looking to see how it could be developed across the county.  In conclusion, the Healthy Lives Team Manager discussed the priorities that they were working on with each PCN.

A brief discussion ensued, and Board Members offered their support.  It was suggested that this be a regular update at ShIPP meetings to monitor its impact and give assurance to the Board about how it was being managed.  Members were reminded that it was a truly integrated service with primary care and a whole range of other partners working very closely together including the voluntary sector which was one of the reasons why this programme worked so well. 

Councillor Hurst-Knight agreed to speak to the Healthy Lives Team manager outside of the meeting in relation to Social Prescribing for Children and Young People and it was confirmed that this would be looked at in a future meeting. 

The Executive Director of People was interested in the impact of Social Prescribing, for example were they seeing less contacts into health and social care six months on following a social prescribing intervention?  In response, the Healthy Lives Team Manager referred to an independent review by Westminster University which showed a 40% reduction in GP contact and other health service usage.  She hoped in future to be able to report on the increase in activation (how well people were able to manage their own health and wellbeing).  The VSCA representative informed the meeting that Citizen’s Advice Shropshire took referrals from social prescribers and had their own tool that measured the difference that their intervention had made which could link into the work being done by the Healthy Lives team. 

In response to a query, it was confirmed that the referrals came from the social care team within the local authority and not local care providers. The Chief Officer explained that Partners in Care represented 260 care providers across the system and would disseminate information about social prescribing to them and would discuss how they could link in with it outside of the meeting.

The Executive Director of Health, Wellbeing and Prevention expressed her thanks to all involved and she applauded the integration work.  Looking at next steps, she wondered how to ensure social prescribing was embedded not just in primary care but across the services and how it could be rolled out.  She also referred to targeting specific groups that needed support such as the rural communities and farmers.

It was agreed to take this forward through ShIPP on a regular basis.

RESOLVED: 

To note the recommendations contained in the report.