November 6th saw the second national social prescribing conference at the King’s Fund, this was the biggest event of the year for the King’s Fund. TCV were community supporters of this event, funded by the Big Lottery Fund and are leading the development of quality assurance for social prescribing across the UK. Our branding was present throughout the event and on all the digital media.
TCV was instrumental in developing this important conference with colleagues from the College of Medicine, University of Westminster and Elemental, a digital company with its roots in community development across Derry.
The purpose of the conference was to share the success of social prescribing over the past two years, in particular, recognise the strengths and achievements, while focusing on what is now needed to support social prescribing as a mainstream programme, equal to any other choice a clinician may have.
The event was an astounding success, with 400 delegates on the day and 150 on the waiting list. Speakers ranged from Arabella Tresilian, who was our inspirational patient voice, through to Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) networks small and large, the NHS and public health and academic colleagues from across the UK.
Matt Hancock MP the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care gave a keynote speech, saying that social prescribing was a key part of the prevention agenda for the NHS, as more than 20% of GP visits are not medically driven.
Overall the event gave a call to action for clinicians to engage in the vital work that we across TCV do every day, connecting people and communities using non-medical options such as the natural environment. The event was so popular that it was trending 7th on the national Twitter feeds!