Strategic Lead for Faith & Social Prescribing

Role Details & Staff Benefits

Salary: £51,500 gross per annum

Duration: Fixed-term until 31st July 2027

Hours: 0.8 - 1 FTE (4 – 5 days per week)

Location: Hybrid – NASP has an office space at London's Southbank Centre which can be used by staff at any time. The role will be expected to work up to 2 days per week in the office with the remainder at home. There may also be additional occasional travel required for staff days and other events.

NASP offer a range of core benefits for staff on payroll, including:

• 30 days paid annual leave per annum, plus Bank Holidays

• An additional day of paid leave per year on your birthday

• Opportunities for Volunteering & CPD days each year

• Opportunity to request flexible working arrangements, including compressed hours

• Contribution to annual eye test, eyeglass purchase, and flu vaccination

Purpose of This Role:

This is a strategic role, funded by the Sir Halley Stewart Trust, to shape future policy and practice in how faith communities support social prescribing for the benefit of local communities. This includes exploring the role of faith as a strategic partner in the government's neighbourhood health agenda. Building on the work of the current postholder, and previous work by NASP and organisations like Theos and the Good Faith Partnership, this role will take the lead at a national level by influencing, shaping and convening partners to unlock and unleash the significant resources of faith groups in contributing towards holistic healthcare delivered within the community.

The purpose of this role is to lead and co-ordinate NASP’s work on social prescribing with partners across the faith sector and enable a better understanding of how to work effectively with faith communities through social prescribing, and the role that faith and belief plays in supporting good health and wellbeing. The role will work to improve accessibility of community support through social prescribing by exploring the barriers and opportunities in faith communities and the health sector. The role will have a particular emphasis on health inequalities and explore opportunities for faith groups’ reach into deprived communities and ethnic minority communities, recognising that faith communities may be most trusted precisely where health inequalities are most acute.

The role sits in the National Leads & Evidence team, led by the Executive Director of Strategy and Partnerships. The postholder will work alongside NASP colleagues who lead on Healthcare integration; Evidence and Insights; International Social Prescribing; and connections with sectors that provide community activities and support such as the natural environment, physical activity, historic environment and arts and culture.

Person Specification:

Experience & Knowledge:

• Excellent knowledge of the health sector and/or the VCFSE (Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise) sector 

• Experience of working in a senior level role at the health and community interface that has included involvement with different faith groups or an understanding of their perspectives. This might be in a delivery or policy role.

• An appreciation of the role of the VCFSE sector in the health and wellbeing of the population and ideally an understanding of the changing healthcare landscape in England at national or local level.

• Understanding of the challenges and opportunities for faith organisations, health and care agencies, local authorities, VCFSE organisations and community groups.

• Excellent partnership building and interpersonal skills with experience of building trusting long-term relationships with partners and experience of inspiring, convening and supporting organisations to work in partnership.

• Excellent communication skills, written and verbal, both internally with peers and senior management, and externally with partners and stakeholders.

• Experience of planning and leading successful and innovative projects. Able to produce project plans and budgets and co-produce delivery plans with colleagues and partners, identifying risks and managing them together.

• Able to work independently in the role, while harnessing, contributing to, and shaping the work of the wider team, and the organisation.

• Experience in writing funding applications and developing new donor relationships to secure new funds would be an advantage. Willingness to do so will be essential.

Skills & Attributes:

• Affinity with NASP’s Values as defined in the NASP Strategic Plan

• A self-starter with a collaborative mindset.

• Strategic thinker with the ability to be proactive and spot new opportunities.

• Ability to work under pressure, prioritise work and be flexible in delivery.

Responsibilities:

Role Overview:

• Act as the faith lead within NASP, being the point of contact and key advocate for faith communities’ involvement in social prescribing, across all major traditions.

• Represent and develop faith groups’ engagement in NASP’s existing activities, programmes and events including workstreams in NASP to build the capacity of Social Prescribing Link workers (SPLWs); support the community assets that SPLW’s harness in their work; and connecting across different Government Departments to explore how social prescribing connects with strategies related to employment, youth, education and community cohesion.

• Have a specific focus of how faith communities can work with social prescribers to support those experiencing health inequalities.

• Support and inform the development of NASP’s wider workstreams and the implementation of its strategy. • Lead and co-ordinate NASP’s national work on social prescribing with partners across the faith sector, including the Good Faith Partnership.

• Build understanding and awareness within NASP and across other sectors of what is required to support the effective provision of services, activities and information in the faith sector to promote health and wellbeing through social prescribing.

• Liaise with, and support, new and existing initiatives to build an evidence base for faith-based social prescribing.

• Convene and lead a national Faith and Social Prescribing Advisory Group, drawing together faith leaders, health system partners and VCFSE organisations to advise on priorities and act as ambassadors for social prescribing within faith communities.

• Ensure engagement of faith communities themselves in developing social prescribing strategy and policy, working with relevant partners.

• Provide high quality advice and insight on faith activity and services in support of NASP’s strategy development, communications and external briefings and meetings.

• Enable NASP’s healthcare integration team to support the strategic development of social prescribing into faith assets at Integrated Care System level and make the case for place-based investment.

• Map current tools, resources, guides and evidence and work with the Communications team to publish and promote these and to develop new resources.

• Build consensus on the key policies required for the scale and spread of social prescribing for faith communities across stakeholders; a joint vision of ‘good faith based SP’.

• Identify and shape partnership opportunities to secure additional funding and resources to help build capacity to enable future social prescribing activity to better support people’s health and wellbeing outcomes.

• Enable awareness raising, shared learning, training and best practice within the faith and health sector. This includes working with NASP's workforce development team and the Link Worker Advisory Group to integrate faith and social prescribing into information and training for Social Prescribing Link Workers.

• Support other areas of NASP’s work and strategy development. In particular, identify and harness commonalities with other sectors supporting social prescribing e.g. nature, arts and culture and heritage.

• Brief and advise the Board and Executive Leadership Team as needed.

• Budget Management - including day-to-day management, raising and processing payments and reporting.

Reporting To: Executive Director of Strategy & Partnerships