Tandridge District Council
Spanning across two local authorities, Tandridge District Council and parts of Reigate and Banstead Borough Council work hard to support individuals with a range of socio-economic issues.
Tandridge District Council started their Wellbeing Prescription Service in 2016. Initially the service supported a handful of GP practices and focused on supporting clients in 1:1 sessions to help manage and prevent long term health conditions, and it was very well established in East Surrey.
Since The Wellbeing Prescription service started it has continued to grow and offer more support to individuals from economic issues including finance and unemployment, to mental health issues. Instead of solely working in Primary Care, its services also work closely with a variety of partners including: the voluntary sector, employment services, food banks, and mental health teams.
What challenges have Tandridge District Council experienced?
Tandridge District Council started to use our Access Elemental Social Prescribing software in 2019, and it was a game changer. Tandridge District Council were able to expand and better meet the needs of their clients due to our software improving their data collection, monitoring, and reporting.
When they first started working with us the majority of referrals were managed by GP Practices reception teams. However as a result of the pandemic in 2020 Wellbeing Advisors withdrew from face-to-face appointments. Instead, everyone worked from home offering both telephone and video appointments.
This meant wellbeing advisors had no access to GP Practices computer systems at home, and therefore they could not access details of patients booked for their Wellbeing Prescription appointments.
In the short term Tandridge developed an internal triage process which welcomed referrals from partners and self-referrals by both phone and email. However as the number kept increasing it became more and more unmanageable.
They needed some additional tools that could integrate with leading GP Software to make managing referrals easier and more efficient.
What was the solution?
At Access Elemental Social Prescribing we work hard to make sure that we respond to our customers feedback. Our Customer Success Manager suggested utilising Access Elemental Social Prescribing’s referral route to allow integrations of leading GP software, so Tandridge District Council could get the information they needed.
Through doing this Tandridge’s Wellbeing Prescription Service were able to access data and information from GP Practices that used EMIS, SystmOne and Vision.
What were the Outcomes?
We commenced the integration process in late 2020 and by summer 2021 all of 18 GP Practices Tandridge District Council worked with had the capability to send referrals direct from their computer system to Tandridge’s Wellbeing Prescription Service.
Following the success of the integration process, Tandridge District Council also integrated Access Elemental Social Prescribing into their website referral form to enable more open referral pathways to all sectors.
They now receive approximately 70 new referrals a week from a variety of partners with an expectation this number will continue to rise. In total 3,289 referrals and 7,468 appointments have been made, with 54% of referrals being due to weight management and wanting to eat well, and the rest mainly concentrating on emotional wellbeing at 37%.
Since working with us at Access Elemental a variety of social prescriptions have been given to help with those referrals including: wellbeing advisor advice, Heart UK’s healthy eating guide, and the British Heart Foundation’s taking control of food portions programme.
What does the future hold for Tandridge District Council’s Wellbeing Prescription Service?
Despite the challenges caused by the pandemic, Tandridge’s Wellbeing Prescription Service has gone from strength to strength. They have been able to support residents to gain access to a variety of local services including: befriending schemes, weight management groups, green social prescribing schemes such as allotment projects, and support for maintaining independent living through carers support, personal alarms, and fall prevention classes.
Looking into the rest of 2022 and beyond Tandridge District Council are looking to getting back out into the community and joining residents at food clubs, in community centres, and at wellbeing events.
To learn how our social prescribing software can help manage your referrals more effectively, contact us today to find out and explore how Access Elemental Social Prescribing can help streamline your service to improve your outcomes further.
Read our article to find out more about what is social prescribing.
