Fuse Research Events
Early Life and Adolescence cluster lunchtime seminar
- Venue: Online
- Start: Tue, 18 Nov 2025 12:00:00 GMT
- End: Tue, 18 Nov 2025 13:00:00 GMT
Hear about the SPACE CYP (Social Prescribing And Community rEsources for Children and Young People) pilot; a family centred hospital-initiated social prescribing service. The session will explore social prescribing, how it can help children with complex needs, describe this family centred approach and why a hospital-initiated approach is helpful. It will look at evidence of benefit and social return on investment analysis. The SPACE Pilot is a partnership project between Ways to Wellness, the Great North Children's Hospital and Newcastle University.
Speakers:
Dr Anna Basu, Clinical Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Paediatric Neurologist
Dr Basu is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University and Honorary Consultant Paediatric Neurologist at the Great North Children's Hospital (GNCH). Her research journey started as a Cambridge undergraduate exploring human neurophysiology and continued with a PHD at Newcastle investigating brain plasticity after early injury. This was then applied to development of therapy for the upper limb in unilateral cerebral palsy. Her focus has since widened to exploring how to support the broader social needs of children with chronic complex conditions and their families starting from the hospital setting. This led to the setup and evaluation of a hospital in-reach social prescribing service at GNCH, funded through Newcastle Hospitals Charity and then NHS Charities Together Innovation Fund; delivered through Ways to Wellness; with evaluation funded through the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North East and North Cumbria (ARC NENC) and Newcastle University.
Lauren Loader, Specialist Team Leader, SPACE Pilot, Ways to Wellness
Lauren studied social work at Northumbria University spending time within homeless services supporting children and families in the local authority and primary schools, and providing specialised community care for people living with disabilities. Since then Lauren has worked in the Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector for over ten years in social prescribing roles.
Ang Broadbridge, Head of Implementation, Ways to Wellness
Ang has a Masters in Social Research Methods and over fifteen years of experience managing health and care programmes and projects in the VCSE. Ang heads up strategic planning and delivery of Ways to Wellness projects including the SPACE Pilot and leads on research and evaluation for the organisation.
