Healthier Together Accreditation

To gain the Healthier Together accreditation, your Practice or Primary Care Network will need to demonstrate:

1. Displaying the acute illness QR Poster in waiting areas
2. Signposting parents to the Healthier Together safety netting resources following consultations
3. Making all staff members aware of the Healthier Together resources (including reception staff)
4. Signposting to health promotion and support resources during mother and baby checks (making every contact count)
5. Have a dedicated member of staff leading on Healthier Together implementation within your Practice or Primary Care Network (i.e. a children and young people social prescriber, practice nurse or member of your reception team)

Here are some information and guidance on how to achieve  these standards:

1. Download the Acute Illness QR Poster - click here.
2. We already have AccuRx and MJOG messages avaliable and Healthier Together has been embedded into Ardens - click here.
3. Consider circulating the most recent Healthier Together newsletter to all staff members within your practice.
4. Make staff aware of prevention resources for parents (keeping my child safe / keeping my child healthy) as well as information about immunisations. Recognise the impact that the cost-of-living crisis is having on families and signpost them to local support.
5. Click here to read out the work that Sam Jenkins has been doing. She serves as the Young People’s Social Prescriber & Wellbeing Coach for the New Forest PCN and has had a huge impact on children and young people across her PCN. Why not consider recruiting a CYP social prescriber for your PCN.

To gain the Healthier Together PLUS accreditation, your Practice or Primary Care Network will need to demonstrate all parts of the Healthier Together accreditation (see above) and:

1. Onboarding with the Healthier Together Paediatric App
2. Actively promoting the Healthier Together website and Paediatric and Maternity Apps to parents and pregnant women
3. Engage in health promotion by partnering with a local school(s) and/or a local voluntary sector organisation(s)
4. Get a member of your primary care team to conduct a quality improvement project based on Healthier Together
5. OPTIONAL: measure the impact of the Healthier Together programme on urgent care activity including unplanned primary care appointments (in hours and OOH) and ED presentations for patients in your PCN / Practice

Here are some information and guidance on how to achieve these standards:

1. How to onboard with the Healthier Together App - click here.
2. Promote the HT website to parents by adding a banner to your practice website, put up posters in your consulting rooms, give out business cards to parents, put still images or videos on the screens in your practice or even give stickers to children after you have seen them.
3. There are so many ways that you can work more closely with your local schools and voluntary sector organisations. You could ensure that parents receive information about when to send their child to school during the winter months. Or signpost their emotional wellbeing team to the mental health resources on the HT website. Or their teachers to lessons plans on health and wellbeing. Or signpost volunteers to common illness workshops they can go through with new parents.
4. For examples of QI Project, take a look at previous projects that have been completed in regards to Healthier Together.  If you are a training practice, this would be great for a trainee portfolio. Other ideas include:
   • Setting up a connecting care children's hub in your practice in partnership with a paediatrician in your local hospital
   • Setting up an exchange between GP trainees and paediatric trainees
   • Offering minor illness workshops to parents
   • Implementing the Healthier Together Website and app into your practice and documenting the app usage and how this has impacted on urgent care activity
   • Please use this template for your submission.  Examples of Primary care led QI projects will be hosted on the Accreditation section of the Healthier Together website
5. One of the most effective ways of maintaining buy-in with the Healthier Together programme is demonstrating its impact on primary care urgent care activity. Access these data from your practice IT system on a quarterly basis and share it with your colleagues.

To gain the Healthier Together accreditation, your Pharmacy will need to demonstrate:

1. Displaying the acute illness QR Poster in public areas
2. Signposting parents to the Healthier Together safety netting resources following consultations
3. Making all staff members aware of the Healthier Together resources.
4. Signposting to health promotion and support resources
5. Have a named member of staff that leads on Healthier Together within your pharmacy
6. Actively promoting the Healthier Together website and Paediatric and Maternity Apps to parents and pregnant women

Here are some information and guidance on how to achieve  these standards:

1. Download the Acute Illness QR Poster - click here.
2. The website has the ability to SMS share pages and content between parents, carers, medical professionals, etc
3. Consider circulating the most recent Healthier Together newsletter to all staff members within your pharmacy.
4. Make staff aware of prevention resources for parents (keeping my child safe / keeping my child healthy) as well as information about immunisations. Recognise the impact that the cost-of-living crisis is having on families and signpost them to local support.
5. This can be your Healthy Living Champion as part of the HLP requirement.
6. Promote the HT website to parents by adding a banner to your pharmacy website, put up posters in your consulting room, give out business cards to parents, put still images or videos on the screens in your pharmacy or even give stickers to children after you have seen them.

Complete the online form, indicating which criteria your practice is currently achieving. Please ensure you provide evidence for how these have been achieved (URL of website / photos of waiting area etc)

Your application will be reviewed by the Healthier Together team and if successful, you will receive confirmation of silver or gold accreditation.

We will also email you a confirmation of accreditation that you can display in your practice

Adherence to accreditation will be reviewed every 3 years.

To apply for the Healthier Together Standard Accreditation, click here.

To apply for the Healthier Together PLUS accreditation, click here.

To apply for the Healthier Together Community accreditation, click here.