As part of Greater Manchester’s commitment to developing social prescribing across the region, health tech innovation company Elemental has been selected as its main digital social prescribing provider.
Greater Manchester comprises 10 areas (Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Heywood Middleton and Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside and Glossop, Trafford, and Wigan), with a population of 2.8 million people. Across Greater Manchester the NHS and councils are working with the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector to build a system that takes into account the wider influences on health and wellbeing – work, housing, education, transport and relationships with friends, family and the community.
Elemental’s Social Prescribing Platform will be available to all NHS bodies and councils in these areas, making it easier for busy health and care professionals to support people holistically by connecting them into community groups and activities.
Giles Wilmore, lead for people and communities, Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership said: “We know social prescribing has already made a difference to so many people whether it’s tackling loneliness and isolation, managing depression and anxiety or getting back to work – we’ve heard amazing stories from right across the region. Now we need to go further and faster so that as many people as possible can benefit from this approach. We want social prescribing to become as commonplace, and just as easy, as booking a blood test or a hospital outpatient appointment. Making Elemental’s social prescribing software available to all NHS bodies and councils will allow health and care professionals to connect people with community groups and activities quickly and easily at the click of a button.”
About Elemental
Elemental, which is a health tech innovation company based in Derry, is helping hundreds of organisations throughout the UK and Ireland to enhance the uptake and impact of their social prescribing programmes via its award-winning portfolio of digital health and social prescribing products and consultancy services.
As the leading digital social prescribing software provider in the UK, Elemental is bridging the gap between health, housing and communities with a range of digital solutions designed to support the strategy and practice of self care and independence.
By embedding Elemental’s digital platform into existing social prescribing programmes across Greater Manchester, NHS bodies and councils in each of the ten areas will be able to:
- Connect patients to commissioned social prescribing programmes in their communities more effectively via Elemental’s ‘Patient Portal’ integrations
- Evaluate the impact of a referral for an individual or across a community cohort
- Contribute to achieving public health objectives by better meeting the health and wellbeing needs of individuals through community support and activities
- Strengthen partnerships between health, housing, Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise organisations and Social Care, and other public services
- Reduce avoidable GP appointments, saving time, cost and resources
- Easily manage everything from within Elemental’s Core social prescribing platform, meaning a seamless and simplified user journey
- Report on and evidence, impact and uptake of each local social prescribing scheme
“We are absolutely delighted to be chosen as Greater Manchester’s main digital social prescribing partner. Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care Foundation Trust, Salford CVS and Stockport Viaduct Care are already benefiting from embedding Elemental’s digital platform into their programmes, so we are already familiar with the importance of delivery and measurement of person and community centred support across the region.
“Elemental has formed strong partnerships with clinical system providers and therefore is able to offer GPs using Vision, EMIS and Systm1 to make, manage and report on referrals to social prescribing programmes. This shifts the relationship between health and care services, and the communities and citizens they serve, so we are really excited about the impacts to come.”
– Jennifer Neff, Elemental Co-Founder/CEO
Embracing and embedding the value of local Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise
In a bid to ensure strong links within the social prescribing community and and roll-out of the digital platform across Greater Manchester, Elemental has partnered with The Bureau in Glossop, Greater Manchester as a Training and Delivery Partner. The Bureau is a nationally accredited volunteer centre which is committed to developing solutions that can be delivered through effective voluntary action and partnership working.
