Link Worker Day 2021

Last week, we attended the 3rd UK Annual Social Prescribing Link Worker Day Awards & Conference which was celebrated across Thursday 7^th and Friday 8^th October. Hosted by the National Association of Link Workers, the two days were a chance to showcase and celebrate the work of link workers in creatively disrupting health inequalities and powering up integrated care.

At Thursday’s awards ceremony, we saw Tracy Pike, a social prescriber for the Dorset-based charity Help & Care, named Social Prescribing Link Worker of the Year as well as Ethna Parker, wellbeing service lead for Darlington Primary Care Network, who won Social Prescribing Manager of the Year. The not-for-profit organisation Enable Leisure and Culture was named Social Prescribing Programme of the Year, and the award for Community Group of the Year went to Outside Edge Theatre Company, who are the only UK theatre company to provide social prescribing activities for those affected by addiction. From Social Rx, we want to say congratulations to all four winners, and thank you for the work you do to improve people’s lives.

The conference on the Friday was a chance to network, discover social prescribing updates and share best practice. After a welcome talk from Social Rx’s Chief Commercial Officer, Matt Sweeney, we heard from a range of industry leaders including the Charman of Mind, Stevie Spring CBE. In the UK Panel Session, Dr Bola Owolabi, one of the directors for NHS England, was particularly inspiring as she spoke about health inequalities in the UK and what steps we need to take to fight them.

In the afternoon, there were some insightful back-to-back sessions from Jattinder Rai, one of our customers at Bexley Voluntary Service Council (BVSC). Jattinder gave us a glimpse into social prescribing at BVSC and how they use Social Rx to get the best out of their programme. “The platform is super easy to use and is very intuitive” she said, adding that “choosing the right social prescribing platform makes all the difference - we’re just relieved to have chosen the right one”. When discussing other user groups that have Social Rx logins, Jattinder mentioned that “the referral process for GPs is really easy”. She also reported positive feedback from community providers, who love that they can add a waiting list to their services.

In case you missed it, you can watch the recording of Jattinder’s session in the video below.

Thank you to the National Association of Link Workers for organising the event, and to everyone who took the time to listen to our sessions or speak with us at our expo booth. We have left feeling more inspired than ever to creatively disrupt health inequalities, power up integrated care and revolutionise healthcare delivery.