The Green Dreams Project
The Green Dreams Project
Community Interest Company
‘Healthcare Innovation in the heart of East Lancashire’
Making a Difference
Burnley Wide - Maximising the health of our community using the resources we already have, with widespread collaboration, symbiosis, and just a bit of convening power.
In 2018 the ‘Fresh Food Initiative’ and ‘Grown in the Community,’ were set up to improve nutrition and health literacy in children and adults. The programs continue to this day.
The first project in 2010 entailed employing link workers to empower those patients whose social problems were making them ill. In 2012 Green Dreams was the first in the UK to be commissioned to provide such a service, for 22 GP surgeries across East Lancashire.
This came to be known as ‘social prescribing' in 2016, the naming of which Green Dreams was a part of. This makes the project unique in having designed, implemented, written about, lobbied on, disseminated, and measured social prescribing programs on both small, and large scales.
The team has lobbied extensively across the country to disseminate this work. Dr James Fleming was a founder member of the National Social Prescribing Network which made social prescribing available to all. Social prescribing is now established across the UK.
East Lancs Clinical Commissioning Group asked Green Dreams to design and implement the over 75’s Specialist Nurse Practitioner Service in 2015. The service has served all 18 surgeries and all 18 nursing homes in Burnley and Padiham since then.
We were commissioned by the Social Enterprise Investment Fund (SEIF) to examine a new funding mechanism for statutory commissioners to work across organisations, namely a Social Impact Bond (SIB). This involved us creating and leading an MDT for a large number of statutory organisations over the 12 month term of the commission.
As well as this, because of our track record we were able to work with East Lancs Hospitals Trust to look for new ways of working between Primary and Secondary Care. This was a major project that ultimately led to the set-up of ‘PWE Healthcare’ in 2017. The service now has 25,000 patients and operates under the care of East Lancs Hospitals Trust.
Introduction
In December of 2023 we were fortunate enough to take part in a visit from the Duchess of York to Padiham and Burnley. She was able to meet hundreds of people, and help to catalyse our plans to improve health literacy and nutrition.
During the visit, the children at Padiham Green School were given some questions from HM King Charles III that he hoped they would be able to answer for him.
1. What do you like about the Forest School?
2. What’s the most interesting thing you have learned about the countryside?
3. Do you think it is good to grow your own vegetables? Which is your favourite?
4. What is the most interesting fact you know about climate change?
5. Do you think growing your own vegetables can help the planet in some way? How?
6. Do you know what an ecosystem is? Are you a part of an ecosystem or an environment?
7. How can you have a positive impact on your environment? How can your environment help you?
The plan
We decided to give the children the opportunity to record their answers in a short film, titled ‘This is our home’.
The aims are for the children to learn about food sustainability and the environment by talking to local leaders, and to provide a resource for other schools.
We hope to highlight how much green space we have in East Lancashire and the positive actions we can take to improve our future.
