Best Social Prescribing Software Solutions

To understand what makes the best social prescribing software solutions, you first need to know who the main providers are within the social prescribing market. 

There are seven notable providers of social prescribing software at present: 

Between these seven solutions the social prescribing market is fairly saturated, and when we factor in potential solutions from all-in-one healthcare packages in the near future... these are your market leaders.

Social prescribing software is designed for preventative care. A person’s first contact with it would probably be through General Practitioners (GPs) and other frontline healthcare professionals (aka the first people you typically go to when you have a problem with your health), but these software solutions also handle the workflow of the link workers that individuals and clinicians engage with, as well as providing insights to Primary Care Network managers and clinical directors regarding the return on investment for local health campaigns and the benefits of preventative care.

Social prescribing solutions are the connection between these professionals and local programmes and services that can assist a patient or client with their health and wellbeing needs, often in a preventative fashion that will allow them greater independence and self-sufficiency.

It is the social prescribing link worker that takes over responsibilities from a clinician. The link workers, as well as care coordinators or health coaches, aid people in getting involved in new activities or groups. Some needs are practical and around physical health; mobility and flexibility especially. Others though are around emotional and psychological needs; loneliness and low confidence, for example.

Knowing what social prescribing software does, or should do, will help guide you to a better judgement of what makes a solution good and thus which solutions are the best on the market and are your best option to pursue.

The Social Prescribing Awards are the main award within the health and care industry for social prescribing services. Some local or regional authorities hold their own awards and commendations, but this – hosted by the Social Prescribing Network and the National Academy for Social Prescribing – is the top prize. These are, however, typically aimed at the organisations providing care, rather than the solutions providers facilitating said care through software innovation.

There are awards to look out for though. Our own Access Elemental solution won at the Health Tech Awards 2024 in the category of “Best Use of Digital for NHS Trusts”. The work of Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and their integration of the Access Elemental tool with their existing electronic patient record system has transformed the delivery of their mental health services. The Health Tech Awards are a big deal in terms of acclaim, so viewing award winners and nominees is a good way of assessing the performance of solutions providers and their software ahead of any purchase or even discussion about onboarding.

Warm Wales, who we work closely with, earned the Innovation in Public Health award at the UKPHR Awards 2024 for their clever usage of Access Elemental to go beyond tackling fuel poverty but to help involve other organisations and government to remedy unsafe residency issues, and there’s the National Association Link Worker Award, at which The Access Group and our partners The Life Rooms won the National Association Link Worker Award for Partnership of the Year.

There’s more to feedback and judgement than just awards though. Customer feedback and reviews are also a great way to assess a company’s performance and capabilities. All providers want positive feedback, and will ask for it, but a client isn’t obliged to give it. That’s where sites like Trustpilot come into play. The majority of organisations will have user ratings and feedback available on their website, and many will choose to showcase their ratings through graphics on their website. The Access Group for example has an average rating of 4.6 out of 5, grading as Excellent by Trustpilot’s standards. This is based on 3,608 user responses, and we feature a widget on our Health and Social Care page to help reassure customers of our legitimacy. We are not alone in doing so, and it is good practice to showcase public opinion and to be transparent about quality and performance.

What makes the best social prescribing software solutions so great is their combined approach to integration with other systems and solutions, and their capacity for data capture and processing. Providers typically want a modular approach to building a system or network of solutions due to the flexibility involved, but they also want efficiency and quality.

Data analytics and forecasting are the future – giving better insights into behaviour and patterns that allow for smarter usage of funds, meaning more care can be delivered from a budget. This also translates to improved outcomes: more money allows for more spending on preventative care, more treatment overall, more staff development. Better data insights allow for more accurate forecasting for said budget savings, but also better guidance on what areas of care can be improved, what areas will see the best return on investment, and what areas are currently being underserved.

This is all welcomed, but solutions also shouldn’t forget the human element of a patient or client. Software must be able to communicate activities, actions and intent from clinicians and support workers to the user. Similarly, these solutions must have a degree of transparency about them. This is the individual’s care process. They should be informed as much as possible about what’s going on surrounding them. It builds trust but also investment, and that leads to more self-sustained habits regards wellbeing. 

The final bit we haven’t touched upon anywhere else is ease of use. Medical professionals have incredibly busy work schedules. Caring for people is intensive, emotional, and rapidly changing in priorities and demands. Software solutions need to help with their quality of life and balance the quality technology can deliver against ease of use. A complicated solution that takes forever to understand will put users off and actively deter them from engaging, rendering them useless. 

Users must be educated properly through robust onboarding. Medical professionals perform difficult jobs, so there’s no doubting they have the intelligence to utilise new solutions, but they must be supported to the utmost ability so that benefits will be delivered as intended.  

Collaboration is the key to understanding, and a good solution provider will know this and be doing it. Collaborate with the experts and their lived experience and all will come together.