Connect for Health Social Prescribing Programme

The service is a social prescribing link worker offer to support adults with non-medical needs that affect health and wellbeing. In social prescribing a variety of health care professionals, social care, community teams, statutory services and Voluntary, Community, Faith, and Social Enterprises (VCFSE) refer people to a social prescribing link worker (SPLW) as well as self-referrals. SPLWs give people time, focusing on 'what matters to me?' to coproduce a simple personalised care and support plan (PCSP), and support people to take control of their health and wellbeing. Social prescribing is an all-age, whole population approach that works particularly well for people who:

• have one or more long term conditions;
• need support with low level mental health issues;
• are lonely or isolated;
• have complex social needs which affect their wellbeing.

The services use a "what matters to me" approach to create a personalised care and support plan with the person and aims to support people with addressing wider determinants of health to enable better health and wellbeing close to home and in their community.

In each INT area, individuals will access the Connect for Health programme by self-referral or be referred by GPs and other health staff, social care providers, or any other professional. They will meet with trained Connect for Health staff (a Link Worker or equivalent) who will arrange an initial 'Discovery Session' to identify what is important to them, including starting to explore their goals and micro-goals. They will together develop a personalised care and support plan (PCSP) identifying their interests and priorities and identify ways of using their strengths to build resilience and empower them to make choices that support their own health and wellbeing. As well as supporting them over a period of weeks or months, the Connect for health community connector or adviser will signpost them to appropriate local sources of support, including services and groups, which are appropriate and proportionate to their needs, ideally using the Suffolk Warm Handover Scheme.

Five years of delivery of the Connect for health service has shown that tailored support from a dedicated worker focussed on what matters most to the individual, and a network of connections into non-clinical support reduces demand on NHS and social care services (such as GPs, accident and emergency departments and social workers) by decreasing the number of occasions that clinical appointments are required by individuals with non-medical needs.

The contract will commence 1 April 2025 and will end on 31 March 2027. Any extension of the contract is subject to funding.

NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board are awarding the contract named within this notice under the Direct Award C process which is outlined within the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. The provider named in this notice is an existing provider and has been reviewed through a Key Criteria assessment to ensure the awarding body is satisfied with current performance and reasonably expects the provider to be able to satisfy the contract which is the subject of this notice. The contract which is the subject of this notice has not changed considerably when compared with the existing / previous contract delivered by the named provider.

The ICB may wish to introduce additional services during the lifetime of the contract ("Contract modifications"). Such contract modifications will be contemplated where additional requirements are similar and or complementary to the services already included in the Specification, at any given time. Such expansion would be by the addition of services commissioned by the Authority as named in the Contract Notice. To this end, after the award of contract, there is a possibility that the contract may be varied as allowable in accordance with the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. Additional information: The existing provider is satisfying the original contract and will likely satisfy the proposed contract to a sufficient standard.