Integrated social prescribing and citizens advice service in a secondary/tertiary children’s healthcare setting

Children living in poverty are more likely to experience a chronic illness and have poorer health outcomes than their more affluent peers. Financial hardship may be exacerbated by the increased cost of caring for a child with a chronic illness, lack of access to benefits and loss of employment. In 2023, we reported themes that emerged from conversations with families and healthcare professionals, which identified barriers to achieving good outcomes for children living in poverty: transport; burden of care; social isolation; digital exclusion; financial costs; healthy lifestyles; housing; parental and carer education; links with education. In response, we proposed a ‘Wellbeing Hub’, comprising social prescribing delivered through the Community Interest Company ‘Health Junction’, and anti-poverty services delivered through Citizens Advice (CA), each with expertise targeted to the themes noted above. For both services, there is good evidence for effectiveness in adult populations. Funding was secured from the Alder Hey Children’s Charity for 3.6 whole time equivalent staff for 2 years (£275 000 staffing cost), supported by specialist expertise within their organisation. In this brief report, we describe key data from the work delivered in the first 12 months of the project. A case study illustrates the value of the social prescribing and CA partnership.