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Charlotte Osborn Forde is the Chief Executive of Involve Kent, a large registered charity that delivers services to vulnerable people. It has developed a primary focus in recent years on social prescribing. In this episode Charlotte explains how the charity contracts with the NHS to deliver Link Workers. She talks about the results for patients and practices of using Link Workers including an increase of 66% of referred patients becoming more physically active. The scheme has delighted GPs with one saying that social prescribing has become “the most transformative thing” in his career.

Show Notes

Charlotte describes Involve Kent (0:38)

Early adoption of social prescribing (1:48)

Funding for the voluntary sector (3:04)

A joint bid with the CCG to work with GP practices (4:07)

Building a partnership with GPs (4:48)

The scale of the practices (5:38)

A Link Worker in each practice and their caseload (6:43)

Receiving referrals (7:37)

The early results – the ONS wellbeing measure (8:22)

Physical activity levels (9:53)

Levels of loneliness and health (11:06)

The impact on the practices – difficulties with the data (12:10)

Anecdotal reaction of practices (13:14)

Link workers working across practices (14:35)

Vital links to a proper infrastructure (15:41)

Working with PCNs (16:27)

Buying in the service (18:29)

Charlotte’s advice – find a local champion and follow the guidance (19:03)

Selecting the right Link Workers (20:25)

Key qualities for effective Link Workers (21:05)

The selection process (22:01)

Work with others (22:34)

System data (23:23)

For other podcasts on social prescribing visit our Podcast Index here

The Involve Kent website is here

They are on Twitter @InvolveKent