Funding for Social Prescribing for Children and Young People

Overview

Please note the link to start the online survey and complete the EOI is at the bottom of this page.

An information webinar was held to promote this opportunity and explain the EOI process on 22nd December. A recording of the event is available here.

1. The opportunity:

An opportunity has arisen for one or more partner organisations to deliver two projects of social prescribing for children and young people, working in a whole-family way and utilising voluntary, community and business assets. There is a focus on evaluation and impact measurement ‘pre’ and ‘post’ the support to eligible children and young people. These two projects are to take place from February 2023 through to June 2024.

There are two distinct projects set out within this expression of interest for the social prescribing programme: one to support children in the High Weald area and another to support Ukrainian children and young people countywide.

An organisation can bid for funding to deliver one or both of these projects, and/or work in partnership with others.

The organisation will be expected to take a social prescribing approach to work with young people to identify need, signposting them to activity providers according to the young people’s interests and the availability of organisations. Additionally, the programme budget also includes allocated funding to cover the costs of the positive activities to support these young people.

 The ESCC Holiday Activities and Food team will be able to support the successful organisation to make referrals by signposting them to local activity providers previously funded through the HAF programme, who would be keen to provide positive activities linked to this programme.

2.  Context:

In partnership with local stakeholders, East Sussex County Council has received funds from NHS Sussex and Homes for Ukraine (Home Office) to coordinate the delivery of two social prescribing projects for children and young people. The two wellbeing projects will work with children in the following ways:

• Targeting children in four primary schools in the High Weald area, as a pilot project for the Primary Care Network area.
• Targeting Ukrainian children and young people who are fleeing war and conflict in Ukraine

These two projects will be connected with existing social prescribing programmes taking place locally to ensure learning and evaluation is shared through a Children and Young People’s Social Prescribing Steering Group.

3. Objectives of the social prescribing projects:

• Positive impact on the emotional wellbeing, mental health, and/or physical health of children young people involved, see section 4 below for eligibility.
• Demand management by reducing the number of referrals for specialist mental health and emotional wellbeing and other services and ensuring timely preventive interventions.
• Develop capacity of and system knowledge of community assets and local organisations which offer activities for children and young people
• Improve awareness of and confidence in an asset-based social prescribing approach amongst local authority and NHS commissioners and service providers, GPs, schools, Voluntary Sector organisations and service users to best contribute to good MHEW of children and young people, including the recognition of the value and impact of facilitating participation in positive activities.
• Improve knowledge in schools and partner organisations about existing mental health and emotional wellbeing services and local clinical pathways

4. Which children are eligible for the social prescribing offer?

The focus of the offer will be on children and young people who are in receipt of free school meals, are experiencing mild to moderate mental health and emotional wellbeing (MHEW) issues and/or other indicators of health inequalities. Other indicators include SEND status, being in receipt of support at school in relation to attendance and behaviour, being supported by early help and social care and/or known to specialist services, with parents and carers who may be experiencing health inequalities and/or who would benefit from support and connecting with community services, but do not meet the threshold for more specialist services.

5. What will we be looking for in the successful expression of interest?

In the expression of interest, we will ask you to set out:

• How you will manage, and supervise the social prescribers for children and young people
• Your understanding of health inequalities issues faced by children, young people and families
• Your understanding of what is available in the community for children and young people, in relation to positive activities and community groups, and how you will work with community and voluntary sector organisations to develop community action/increase what activities are available locally to meet the needs of children and young people. 
• Your understanding of where to signpost or refer for more specialist and intensive support
• Your plan for the processes you will have to manage external funding and monitor how this is utilised to fund positive activities.
• How you will establish internal processes to monitor project delivery
• How you will and gather outcome data, such as participation figures, service user feedback and wellbeing outcomes, and evidence of whole family working to contribute to the overall evaluation. (N.B. Evaluation and wellbeing outcome framework will be provided by ESCC).

Expectations of the provider(s):

• Willingness to work closely with the ESCC Project team to ensure that appropriate data is collected for monitoring and evaluation of the project(s).
• That your organisation will be ready to begin project delivery, following recruitment, ASAP.

6. Expression of interest - Requirements of the social prescribing offer

Overview

The two projects should offer a preventative approach to tackle health inequalities experienced by children and young people, using social prescribing to offer early support and stop needs from escalating.

The provider organisation(s) can take a flexible approach to the delivery of the social prescribing offer but will be expected to contribute to the development of local capacity of social prescribing skills (Appendix 1). Specifically, the following requirements must be met and the specific outcomes delivered:

Requirements

Both projects will be required to:

• Take a whole family approach to deliver social prescribing for children and young people
• Manage the payments for positive activities
• Improve outcomes for these children and young people, particularly in relation to the emotional wellbeing and mental health and addressing other health inequalities.

• 1. High Weald
• Who is the project for? The project will be centred around four primary schools in the High Weald area and will support at least 96 eligible young people (24 per school) across years 5-6 i.e. approximately 100 children per year. (N.B. The target schools will be identified by January 2023)

1. 2.  Support for Ukrainian children and young people

Who is the project for? The project will be focussed on supporting Ukrainian children young people living in the county. Given the trauma that has been experienced by many Ukrainians, this proposal seeks to provide support for their emotional wellbeing and mental health through a preventative offer, which will also reduce pressure on specialist services and long-term costs.

Funding has been secured to support at least 50% of the total number of Ukrainian CYP across the county (c.229 individuals).

7. What funding is available?

Through this expression of interest, organisations are invited to bid for funding to deliver this programme.

Total funding available

• High Weald – (Delivery of social prescribing, management oversight 10%, and budget for positive activities) = £115,700
• Ukrainian offer (Delivery of social prescribing, management oversight 10% and budget for positive activities) = £253,600

The funding will cover three main elements:

1. 1. Organisational overheads – electricity, travel etc. (10%)
      • High Weald project - £5,810
      • Ukrainian project – £11,620
   2. Delivery and supervision of Social Prescribers to support:
      • Four schools in the High Weald area for 18 months. - £52,290

And/or

• • • Ukrainian children and young people countywide for 18 months. £104,580

Please note the social prescribers delivery costs have been calculated by combining salary (based on an ESCC Keyworker Single Status 8 scale), on costs (pension, Naitonal Insurance etc) and an additional 18% to cover supervision and management.

These figures include the cost of management overheads and oversight of the social prescribing project, including ensuring the data required for the funders’ evaluation is collected and the social prescribers are offered some clinical supervision, as they will be working with children with some level of vulnerability. The above funding under Point 2 could be used by providers however they feel is most appropriate, i.e. there is no specific proportion ring-fenced for posts or management within these figures, so long as the outcomes (number of young people etc) are reached, the evaluation requirements are met, and there is some level of supervision for the social prescribers.

1. 3. Funding to pay for the positive activities (Appendix 2)
      • High Weald – 96 children - £57,600

And/or

• • • Ukrainian children and young people countywide – circa 200 children - for 18 months. £137,400

N.B. The activity costs were calculated on an average of £20 per week per child for up to 30 weeks (once calendar year term-time). While the majority of this part of the funding is to be used to pay for these positive activities, up to 10% of the activity allocation can be used by the provider for coordination of payments to the providers of the positive activities. Additionally, the successful provider should approach the Project Manager if they wish to discuss use of the funds to address other barriers to the children’s participation, such as equipment, transport, or parent/carer childcare costs.

Funding will be paid to the successful organisation in two parts:

• First tranche: [Total of the 10% overheads; 50% for social prescribing provision; 50% of funds for positive activities] will be paid on approval of the bid.
• Second tranche: [25% for social prescribing provision; 25% of funds for positive activities] will be paid in September 2023 once the full delivery plans have been laid out by the successful bidder and pre-engagement outcome measures have been collected from the young people and parents/carers involved.
• Third tranche: [25% for social prescribing provision; 25% of funds for positive activities] will be paid in March 2024 during the delivery for positive activities.

8. Timescales for the expression of interest:

• Bids are requested to be received by 29^th January
• Decisions made by 3^rd February
• Start delivery as soon as the funding is approved (including recruitment if required, by beginning of March 2023 at the latest.
• Engagement with young people and funding of positive activities for at least a term and up to three terms/one calendar year. Monitoring data collected throughout.
• Providers will be required to support completion of Final Evaluative Report for the funders, that we will produce collaboratively with the provider(s) by 30^th November 2024.

9.  How to find out more?

If you have any questions about the programme or would like to discuss your proposal before submitting a bid please contact Ben Baker, Development Manager, on 07923 382464 or ben.baker@eastsussex.gov.uk.

Appendix 1 Developing capacity of social prescribing for children and young people

• An example job description is attached to this expression of interest for reference. This job description has been internally graded as SS8 (ESCC pay scale here).
• The funding could provide an opportunity for a secondment or uplift for someone already working within your organisation, or a candidate could be appointed externally.
• Ideally these social prescribers would be based within a community partner, voluntary sector organisation or school that already has links in either the High Weald area or with Ukrainian families and young people.
• Partner organisations that receive this funding would be expected to develop the capacity of these Social Prescribers, for example supporting them to develop the core competencies outlined in the NHS Social Prescription Workforce Development Framework. More information about this framework is available here

Appendix 2 Funding for positive activities

• As well as offer social prescribing intervention and support to screen and signpost young people to other local support, Social Prescribers will be expected to identify and fund positive activities for the children they are supporting, linked with their interests.
• These sessions could range from sports to performing arts or from outdoor activities to courses and training. Essentially any positive engagement that would support the young person to develop their confidence, learn new skills or reduce anxiety that would in turn support their mental health and emotional wellbeing could be funded in this way.
• Funding within the overall project budget has been allocated for this, at an estimated cost of £20/head/session. It is expected that young people could be funded to attend up to 30 sessions, (10 per school term) over the course of the programme (until June 2024). Funding could also be used for equipment which they may require to access the activity they wish to participate in.
  • Funding for positive activities in the High Weald project - £57,600
  • Funding for positive activities to support Ukrainian young people - £137,400
• The successful organisation will be required to hold this activity budget and social prescribers will work with young people and their families to refer them to, pay for and monitor attendance at these activities as required.
• Support for the successful organisation to develop relationships with local activity providers will be available through the ESCC Holiday Activities and Food team.

What happens next

• Bids are requested to be received by 29^th January
• Decisions made by 3^rd February
• Start delivery as soon as the funding is approved (including recruitment if required, by beginning of March 2023 at the latest.
• Engagement with young people and funding of positive activities for at least a term and up to three terms/one calendar year. Monitoring data collected throughout.
• Providers will be required to support completion of Final Evaluative Report for the funders, that we will produce collaboratively with the provider(s) by 30^th November 2024.