On 28th April, BVSC held a workshop focusing on city-wide referral pathways and social prescribing, which has supported the development of a Social Prescribing Strategy paper.

The strategy paper was reviewed at the Health and Wellbeing board at the end of May and there have been further discussions taking place with commissioners. We recently met with Birmingham and Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group (BSoL CCG) and the below actions have been identified. Initial focus is understanding capacity within the voluntary and community sector around referrals:

1. BSoL CCG will collect data on referrals and specifically services that are needed but not provided.
2. NHS will undertake strategic planning around capacity of assets, if Primary Care Networks are asked to develop a particular focus around social prescribing.
3. Review investment (with partners), based on the above information.

Moving forward, we will implement a working group of VCFSE sector leaders to develop this activity further. Once embedded, we will then hold another workshop bringing stakeholders together and supporting developments.

At this stage, we would be grateful for organisations to respond to the following key questions:

• Are you a sector leader and would like to form part of the working group?
• Are you a VCFSE organisation and are being oversubscribed through formal social prescribing channels? If yes, please provide details to support understanding around demand, gaps and impacts.

We would be grateful if you could submit responses by Friday 9th July, by e-mail: [email protected] 

Click here to download the Social Prescribing Strategy paper.