Social Prescribing Link Worker - The Bay Medical Practice

Job Posted: 15 September 2026

• Contract Term: Permanent
• Location: Sandown, Isle of Wight
• Contract Type: Full time
• Salary: £31,150 a year
• Industries: Health & Social Care Pharmaceutical & Medical

Social Prescribing Link Worker

The closing date is 14 October 2026

Job summary

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full time 37.5 hours per week

Salary: £31,150 per annum

Candidates are strongly encouraged to apply early as applications will be considered upon submission. Closing date 14.10.26 but may close earlier if adequate applications are received.

We're looking for a full time Social Prescribing link worker who will be employed wholly by One Wight Health Ltd and will work within the Islands South Primary Care Network at the Bay Medical Practice (Covering Sandown and Shanklin branches).

You will work with individuals to identify their needs, then support them to access other organisations, services or community groups as appropriate. You will be engaging and use your skills to build networks to identify local services that can support patients with underlying issues that may contribute to ill health, such as managing their housing, finances, stress, loneliness or lifestyle choices.

To be successful you must have experience of managing your own caseload, knowledge of the local community, ideally hold a relevant health qualification and have knowledge of advice and advocacy services. You will be customer focused in your approach with the ability to listen to patients' needs as well as develop strong networks and relationships with suitable partners. Full UK Driving licence and use of car is essential.

Main duties of the job

Take referrals from a wide range of agencies, working with GP practices within primary care networks, pharmacies, multi-disciplinary teams, hospital discharge teams, allied health professionals, fire service, police, job centres, social care services, housing associations, and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations (list not exhaustive).

Provide personalised support to individuals, their families and carers to take control of their wellbeing, live independently and improve their health outcomes. Develop trusting relationships by giving people time and focus on what matters to me. Take a holistic approach, based on the persons priorities and the wider determinants of health. Co-produce a personalised support plan to improve health and wellbeing, introducing or reconnecting people to community groups and statutory services. The role will require managing and prioritising your own caseload, in accordance with the needs, priorities and any urgent support required by individuals on the caseload. It is vital that you have a strong awareness and understanding of when it is appropriate or necessary to refer people back to other health professionals/agencies, when what the person needs is beyond the scope of the link worker role e.g. when there is a mental health need requiring a qualified practitioner.

About us

One Wight Health supports our member GP practices to help them deliver the best possible care to patients on the Island. We host a team including Social Prescribers & Health and Wellbeing Coaches under a Primary Care Contract that support our Island practices.

Our Approach

We aim to do that by providing centralised services that enable GPs to enhance their offer of support to patients.

We also help bid for and secure additional funding from NHS England, where it becomes available, to help support new initiatives that help practices to meet their patients care needs and we work to support general practice/primary care, to make sure it has a voice within the wider healthcare system as it develops plans for the future care for our population.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Key responsibilities

1. Take referrals from a wide range of agencies, working with GP practices within primary care networks, pharmacies, multi-disciplinary teams, hospital discharge teams, allied health professionals, fire service, police, job centres, social care services, housing associations, and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations (list not exhaustive).
2. Provide personalised support to individuals, their families and carers to take control of their wellbeing, live independently and improve their health outcomes. Develop trusting relationships by giving people time and focus on what matters to me. Take a holistic approach, based on the persons priorities and the wider determinants of health. Co-produce a personalised support plan to improve health and wellbeing, introducing or reconnecting people to community groups and statutory services. The role will require managing and prioritising your own caseload, in accordance with the needs, priorities and any urgent support required by individuals on the caseload. It is vital that you have a strong awareness and understanding of when it is appropriate or necessary to refer people back to other health professionals/agencies, when what the person needs is beyond the scope of the link worker role e.g. when there is a mental health need requiring a qualified practitioner.
3. Work with a diverse range of people and communities, to draw on and increase the strengths and capacities of local communities, enabling local VCSE organisations and community groups (including faith groups) to receive social prescribing referrals.
4. Work together with all local partners to collectively ensure that local VCSE organisations and community groups are sustainable and that community assets are nurtured, by making them aware of small grants or micro-commissioning if available, including providing support to set up new community groups and services, where gaps are identified in local provision.

Key Tasks

1. Promoting social prescribing, its role in self-management, and the wider determinants of health.
2. Build relationships with key staff in GP practices within the local Primary Care Network (PCN), attending relevant meetings, becoming part of the wider network team, giving information and feedback on social prescribing.
3. Be proactive in developing strong links with all local agencies to encourage referrals, recognising what they need to be confident in the service to make appropriate referrals.
4. Work in partnership with all local agencies to raise awareness of social prescribing and how partnership working can reduce pressure on statutory services, improve health outcomes and enable a holistic approach to care.
5. Provide referral agencies with regular updates about social prescribing, including training for their staff and how to access information to encourage appropriate referrals.
6. Seek regular feedback about the quality of service and impact of social prescribing on referral agencies.
7. Be proactive in encouraging self-referrals and connecting with all local communities, particularly those communities that statutory agencies may find hard to reach.

Provide personalised support

1. Meet people on a one-to-one basis, making home visits where appropriate within organisations policies and procedures. Give people time to tell their stories and focus on what matters to me. Build trust with the person, providing non-judgemental support, respecting diversity and lifestyle choices. Work from a strength-based approach focusing on a persons assets.
2. Be a friendly source of information about wellbeing and prevention approaches.
3. Help people identify the wider issues that impact on their health and wellbeing, such as debt, poor housing, being unemployed, loneliness and caring responsibilities.
4. Work with the person, their families and carers and consider how they can all be supported through social prescribing.
5. Help people maintain or regain independence through living skills, adaptations, enablement approaches and simple safeguards.
6. Work with individuals to co-produce a simple personalised support plan based on the persons priorities, interests, values and motivations including what they can expect from the groups, activities and services they are being connected to and what the person can do for themselves to improve their health and wellbeing.
7. Where appropriate, physically introduce people to community groups, activities and statutory services, ensuring they are comfortable. Follow up to ensure they are happy, able to engage, included and receiving good support.
8. Where people may be eligible for a personal health budget, help them to explore this option as a way of providing funded, personalised support to be independent, including helping people to gain skills for meaningful employment, where appropriate.

Support community groups and VCSE organisations to receive referrals

1. Forge strong links with local VCSE organisations, community and groups, utilising their networks and building on what is already available to create a map or menu of community groups and assets. Use these opportunities to promote micro-commissioning or small grants if available.
2. Develop supportive relationships with local VCSE organisations, community groups and statutory services, to make timely, appropriate and supported referrals for the person being introduced.
3. Ensure that local community groups and VCSE organisations being referred to have basic procedures in place for ensuring that vulnerable individuals are safe and, where there are safeguarding concerns, work with all partners to deal appropriately with issues. Where such policies and procedures are not in place, support groups to work towards this standard before referrals are made to them.
4. Check that community groups and VCSE organisations meet in insured premises and that health and safety requirements are in place. Where such policies and procedures are not in place, support groups to work towards this standard before referrals are made to them.
5. Support local groups to act in accordance with information governance policies and procedures, ensuring compliance with the Data Protection Act.
6. Work collectively with all local partners to ensure community groups are strong and sustainable
7. Work with commissioners and local partners to identify unmet needs within the community and gaps in community provision.
8. Support local partners and commissioners to develop new groups and services where needed, through small grants for community groups, micro-commissioning and development support.
9. Encourage people who have been connected to community support through social prescribing to volunteer and give their time freely to others, in order to build their skills and confidence, and strengthen community resilience.
10. Encourage people, their families and carers to provide peer support and to do things together, such as setting up new community groups or volunteering.
11. Provide a regular confidence survey to community groups receiving referrals, to ensure that they are strong, sustained and have the support they need to be part of social prescribing.

Work sensitively with people, their families and carers to capture key information, enabling tracking of the impact of social prescribing on their health and wellbeing.

Encourage people, their families and carers to provide feedback and to share their stories about the impact of social prescribing on their lives.

Person Specification

Other requirements

Essential

• Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• Access to own transport and ability to travel across the locality on a regular basis, including to visit people in their own home.

Desirable

• Flexibility to work outside of core office hours

Qualifications

Essential

• Holds a recognised healthcare or advisory qualification (or equivalent relevant experience).
• Good standard of education with excellent literacy and numeracy skills.
• Leadership and/or management qualification (or equivalent relevant experience)

Skills and Knowledge

Essential

• Ability to communicate complex and sensitive information effectively with people at all levels by telephone, email and face to face.
• Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiation skills organisation skills with the ability to constructively challenge the view and practices of managers and clinicians.
• Ability to develop business cases.
• Knowledge of IT systems, including ability to use word processing skills, emails and the internet to create simple plans and reports.
• Be flexible and able to manage sudden and unexpected demands.
• Effective time management (planning and organising).
• To be a strategic thinker and planner with the ability to consider and act upon complex issues.
• To be able to prioritise own work effectively and to direct activities of others.
• Demonstrate personal accountability, emotional resilience and work well under pressure.

Desirable

• Local knowledge of VCSE and community services in the locality.
• Knowledge of how the NHS works, including primary care.

Experience

Essential

• An understanding or previous experience of working within a Primary Care organisation or a comparable not for profit agency.
• Ability to demonstrate management of own caseload and prioritisation of case work.
• Previous experience or providing an advisory service assisting with complex patient situations which require multi agency working.
• Able to interpret, translate and deliver key messages to patient groups.
• Good practical and conceptual knowledge of healthcare improvement methods and community level services for referral purposes .
• Experience of successfully establishing working relationships within teams across multiple locations.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer details

Employer name

One Wight Health Ltd

Address

The Bay Medical Practice

Broadway

Sandown

Isle of Wight

PO36 9GA

United Kingdom