Appendix 1 – Policy Context

The General Practice Forward view 2016

  • Role of voluntary and community sector organisations and social prescribing in offering community- based support.

The NHS Long Term Plan 2019

  • Social prescribing incorporated into comprehensive model of personalised care
  • A key goal in the Long Term Plan is to put in place more than 1,000 Social Prescribing link workers by the end of 2020/21, rising further by 2023/24, with the aim that more than 900,000 people are connected to wider community services that can help improve health and well-being.​ 
  • For London this means working towards 800 SPLWs operating by 23-24 ​= approx. 4 per PCN of average population of 50,000. However, this is a rough guide and tailoring the workforce to local needs, priorities and systems is important
  • Seven national service specifications including:
  1.  personalised care
  2. supporting early cancer diagnosis
  3. cardiovascular disease case-finding
  4. enhanced health in care homes (with community services)
  5. anticipatory care (with community services)
  6. structured medication reviews
  7. locally agreed action to tackle health inequalities 

Health and Care Act 2022

Established Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) on a statutory basis on 1 July 2022.

5 ICSs in London.

Partnerships of organisations coming together to plan and deliver joined up health and care services and address complex challenges to:

  1. improve outcomes in population health and healthcare
  2. tackle inequalities in outcomes, experience and access
  3. enhance productivity and value for money
  4. help the NHS support broader social and economic development

2019 five-year contract framework for general practice

  • Intended to stabilise general practice and allow it to be a key vehicle for delivering commitments in the NHS long-term plan.

Fuller stock report 2022

At the heart of the report is a new vision for integrating primary care, improving the access, experience and outcomes for our communities, which centres around three essential offers: 

  • Streamlining access to care and advice for people who get ill but only use health services infrequently: providing them with much more choice about how they access care and ensuring care is always available in their community when they need it
  • Providing more proactive, personalised care with support from a multidisciplinary team of professionals to people with more complex needs, including, but not limited to, those with multiple long-term conditions
  • Helping people to stay well for longer as part of a more ambitious and joined-up approach to prevention.