NHS Social Prescribing: Ashfield Community Hub

The new facility for social prescribing in Ashfield, The Ashfield Community Hub brings back into use the disused former canteen of an NHS Health Centre as a place to meet social prescribing link workers and associated charities and counsellors and to enable a vibrant meeting place where community groups can meet and deliver some of the actions of social referrals.

Stakeholder consultation

From our earliest conversations with health centre staff and users, we realised the importance of having a mixture of open and enclosed spaces, to be respectful of patients’ privacy whilst also ensuring that the centre could operate as a community hub where groups could meet and a wide range of activities take place.

Inclusive, participatory design 

Ashfield Community Hub is a flexible, fully adaptable space. Conceived of as three zones. It is able to host large groups in the main activity zone, small private one to one meetings and counselling sessions in an area of comfortable sofas, and co-working or skills workshops at the workbench. Accessibility and adaptability were key parts of the design proposal and flexibility is built in with acoustic partitions and movable furniture.

Reuse and retention were key strategies in keeping to budget and minimising both disruption and material use. We used colour, furniture and plants to create a welcoming and non-clinical space, that users would feel relaxed within.

“[The social prescribing hub] was designed by the team to be very welcoming and not very hospital-like, making it attractive and inspirational, facilitating visitors to engage with social prescribers.”

Martin Meltzer, Senior Capital Manager, NHS Property Services