Do you want to help positively impact pupils’ social connections, mental health, school attainment and attendance? INACT is a national programme of work which aims to understand how social prescribing can benefit pupils who are reporting loneliness and low community connection. We are currently looking for link worker host organisations and schools to get involved in the project.

Many young people are reporting low community connection and loneliness, which is affecting their mental health, wellbeing, academic attainment, and school attendance. INACT (INcreasing Adolescent social and Community supporT) will understand the types of social and community networks young people use, what factors affect this, how to best support young people who report having low social and community networks or feel lonely, and how supporting these pupils improves their outcomes. It is a collaboration between University College London, the University of Manchester, and the National Academy for Social Prescribing, funded by the Kavli Trust.

Link Worker Host Organisations

Following the success of INACT Phase 1 with 12 schools and social prescriber host organisations, we are now rolling out and expanding INACT nationally, as part of Phase 2.

We are looking for organisations that work with child and youth social prescribers to join INACT. For those that are interested, we can:

  • Provide reimbursement for a social prescriber’s time on INACT
  • Provide a robust evaluation of the impact of social prescribing for pupils in schools which can be used for further service commissioning

If you are a social prescriber or social prescribing host organisation and would like to find out more about participating in INACT, please contact Dr Daniel Hayes, Principal Investigator at d.hayes@ucl.ac.uk.

Schools

Following the success of INACT Phase 1 with 12 schools, we are now rolling out and expanding INACT nationally, as part of Phase 2.

We are looking for schools to join INACT. Schools that take part will get:

  • A free DBS certified Link Worker to work with pupils in your school (worth up to £27,826)
  • Tailored support to develop social pathways so that pupils can access local community support
  • Sustainable pathways which can continue to be used once INACT has ended
  • A personalised and comprehensive list of community resources in your local area
  • Tailored reports on pupil’s mental health and wellbeing
  • £500 for participation

Schools will need to commit 12 hours of staff time across the academic year for INACT. This does not need to be 1 member of staff but can be split across multiple staff members.

If you work in a school and would like to find out more about participating in INACT, sign up here.

Further information

Phase 2 of INACT will work with 30 schools across England. We will work with schools, social prescribers, community resources and young people to develop pathways for young people to access community resources. This will involve 3, 30-minute meetings over 4 months to develop (i) a community social prescribing pathway and (ii) a community signposting pathway.

Following pathway development, we will use a class survey to identify pupils who would benefit from support. These pupils will be allocated to the developed pathways and followed up with over a 12-month period to see what they thought about the support and how it impacted them.