What is Social Prescribing

Defining what is social prescribing can be done in multiple ways. It is a community-based, holistic approach with the aim to bring together social and medical models to improve health and wellbeing.  

Social prescribing creates programmes to remove barriers for social, economic, and physical issues someone could be experiencing, to help reduce health inequalities whilst alleviating pressure on the NHS, particularly for GPs.

Currently almost 20% of GPs consultation time is spent on non-clinical issues, which in turn translates to approximately £400 million to the health service. Social prescribing therefore, recognises that people’s health can be impacted by a variety of social determinants and offers the opportunity to address people’s needs in a more holistic way.

Find out more about Social Prescribing solutions 

Social prescribing is important as it offers a non-clinical way for individuals to seek support and guidance in improving their mental health and wellbeing.  

Studies show that nearly 1 in 5 adults were likely to be experiencing some form of depression. 

As a result, the need for social prescribing within communities is continuing to grow and will be central to the NHS’ plan for primary care.

It can help tackle issues such as loneliness, mental health, and social isolation and therefore promote a more holistic approach to managing healthcare. Through connecting individuals to numerous community activities and groups, social prescribing can improve the overall wellbeing for a community whilst helping reduce the demand for medical services, leading to more sustainable and effective healthcare systems in the future.

As it continues to develop more and more each year, at Access Elemental we have seen great progression and collaboration to improve outcomes. Now there is a need for standardisation and we have been working hard with the PRSB to create social prescribing standards to be used nationally. This will enable the government, ICSs, social prescribing services, and other healthcare professionals to record social prescribing outcomes consistently across the board to help record and provide evidence for social prescribing so it can continue to grow further.

Equally, social prescribing is important as its model can be adapted into a variety of sectors including education and housing.

Here social prescribing in education can help provide students the support they need to overcome to overcome the pressures of moving to university, decrease drop-out rates, and ultimately improve student welfare. 

Similarly, social prescribing in housing can help individuals cope with the financial pressures of running a home, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, to reduce the levels of homelessness across the UK.

Social prescribing is important therefore as it’s an approach and model that can be easily adapted to a variety of sectors to help improve the health and wellbeing across all communities in a variety of different ways so no individual is left with their needs being unmet.

The concept of social prescribing is not new. Some say that it has been around since the 1990s. Bromley Bow Centre 1 in London was seen as the first fully operational social prescribing initiative in 1984.

In the NHS’ long plan of comprehensive care, social prescribing has been described as the logical extension of biopsychosocial model of healthcare.  

What is key in the transition of national rollouts of social prescribing and Link Workers is the partnership between the NHS and voluntary and community sectors for effective healthcare and promoting good wellbeing. To do this having a up-to-date Directory of Services is essential so different stakeholders can effectively work together to improve the overall wellbeing of the community. Access Elemental Marketplace provides this by enabling community engagement to be at the heart of improving community health and wellbeing.

For social prescribing journeys to take place and be successful there are multiple interfaces involved including:

• Referral Agents – these could be GPs, Nurses, Housing Officers, Social Workers, Crisis Support Workers, Discharge Nurses, and Teachers or Tutors. Self-referral is also encouraged, and these referrals then get generated through our Access Elemental platform.
• Referral Handlers – these could be Social Prescribing Link Workers, Community Navigators, Community Development Officers, and Wellness Managers. Referral handlers manage the referrals and co-produce social prescriptions with the individual.
• Providers – such as: VCFS Providers, Facilitators of programmes, Services and Initiatives, and Programme Managers.
• The individual themselves
• Super Users – such as Commissioners and Overall Programme Managers. Super users will evaluate data and have the authority to access reports and data downloads to track engagement and wellbeing progress.

Social prescribing journeys can differ slightly depending on the individual’s needs and which referral agent and referral handler is used. However Access Elemental Social Prescribing have the same 7 key stages:

• Referral – Here referrals are made by the nominated referral agent and these are then generated through our Access Elemental platform and sent across to the relevant hub.
• Assessment Arranged – At this stage the nominated referral handler will log onto our Access Elemental platform to locate and manage the referral to organise the first meeting with the individual.
• Baseline Metrics – At the first meeting with the individual, the nominated referral handler will take baseline scores, such as wellbeing scores, and explain these to the individual so they can start co-producing the individual’s social prescriptions.
• Social prescription – These are generated using the platform and our system then notifies the provider that a referral has been made to their service. All social prescriptions made are created according to the individual’s needs.
• Further Visits – Then follow up visits with the nominated referral agent will take place. During these visits further health and wellbeing scores will be taken and recorded to track the individual’s progress. At this point if extra support is needed it gets provided.
• Health risks reduced – The data collected from these follow up visits are then located on the platform for journeys to be tracked more efficiently.
• Outcome – This data is then easily compared to identify whether engagement and wellbeing is improving in an individual.

This video demonstrates ‘Richard’s’ journey as an example of an Access Elemental Social Prescribing journey in practice.

For more examples of different types of social prescribing journeys including self-referral, in university, and in housing explore our social prescribing journeys page today. 

Self-referrals for example offer many benefits to individuals to enable more proactive social prescribing enabling them to directly get the support they need when they need it. At Access Elemental we like to go further by offering both self-referral  and self-serve functionalities. Some of the main benefits include:

• Providing a digital referral pathway for your patients/citizens

• Empowering individuals to take more control over their health

• Encouraging a culture of self-care and management

• Reducing admin time for referral agents and GPs

• Building a stronger community by connecting individuals to services and groups to the local community

Equally, housing is one of the biggest wider social determinants with Link Workers help individuals overcome. It is one of the three top issues we are currently facing in the UK and social prescribing in housing is one way we can help overcome these issues and improve someone’s mental health and wellbeing.

For more information in how best to implement social prescribing in housing download our housing guide today.

Benefits for people

• Supports people with a wide range of social, emotional or practical needs. 
• Improves physical and mental wellbeing by focussing on what matters to the individual
• Creates connections with community assets and community members
• Allows individuals to co-create their own enriched, personalised care pathway
• Enhances mental health
• Creates a sense of belonging through building social connections within their community
• Receive more personalised support
• Improved social engagement – e.g. individuals benefit from increased social engagement which can positively impact their emotional health and overall quality of life
• A better opportunity of expanding social networks
• Reduced dependency on healthcare – e.g. reduced GP and hospital attendance
• Focuses on those most likely to benefit from social prescribing e.g. people with mild or long-term mental health problems, vulnerable groups, people who are socially isolated, and those who frequently attend either primary or secondary health care

Benefits for Healthcare and PCNs

• A more holistic approach to patient care
• Deliver better person-centred care
• Relieve pressure on medical/clinical services
• Improved patient outcomes
• Better use of resources
• Better collaborative care through following a co-production approach
• Offers more preventative care
• Improves patient satisfaction
• Relieves pressure on GPs and gives them ‘more than medicine’ options
• Develops the capacity of health and wellbeing professionals and others across multiple sites by reducing administrative tasks and freeing up more time to support citizens
• Offers potential cost savings e.g. Lorn and Oban Healthy Options saved over £800,000 across 5 years from reduced GP attendance because of social prescribing

Benefits for housing

• Improved wellbeing for residents
• Enhanced community cohesion
• Reduced social isolation
• More support for vulnerable groups
• Promotes healthier lifestyles
• Better collaborative relationships e.g. improved wellbeing and community cohesions may have a more positive impact on housing services due to residents being more satisfied
• Strengthened support networks
• Provide better support for residents to manage their money better to prevent the risk of homelessness or falling into fuel poverty which could be exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis

For more information on the benefits of social prescribing in housing download our guide today.

Benefits in employment

• Improved employee wellbeing
• Reduced stress and burnout levels
• Enhanced mental health
• Increased job satisfaction
• Better support and encouragement for a work-life balance
• Encourage more manageable personal and professional growth
• Strengthened workplace culture
• Reduced absenteeism
• Enhanced employee engagement
• Higher staff retention

Benefits in education

• Improved wellbeing in students, teachers, and lecturers alike
• Higher student retention
• Lower student drop-out rates
• Potential cost savings e.g. the money lost from students dropping out of university is reduced
• Increased resilience
• Reduced social isolation
• Increased attendance
• Greater engagement in school/university life
• Offers the opportunity for better performance in academic results
• Strengthened community
• Better support for more vulnerable students

Benefits for local governments and ICSs

• Ensures a person led approach that focuses on the whole person 
• Strengthens relationships and promotes cross-sectoral cohesion
• Reduces the use of NHS services and contributes to a range of broader government objectives, for example in relation to employment, volunteering and learning
• Can demonstrate return on investment and social value
• Improved population health
• More cost-effective health and social care
• Reduced health inequalities
• Greater efficiency e.g. ICSs can streamline their care delivery better reducing the duplication of services and ensuring services are used effectively
• Offers better health promotion and prevention e.g. preventative care initiatives can contribute to healthier communities to reduced the demand for reactive health services
• Offers better outcomes based commissioning through data-driven decision making

Benefits for VCSE providers

• Provides options for Link Workers and facilitates ease of referral both within and beyond the VCSE sector
• Creates effective practice and successful partnership models and promotes cross sectoral cohesion
• Addresses the social determinants of health and serves the entire community with a high-quality range of social assets
• Can evidence success and provide suitable outcomes to help prove the case for levering in additional funding
• Locally focussed and driven towards addressing the needs of individuals through accessible activities and programmes
• Increased visibility and engagement e.g. gaining better visibility in healthcare and social care can increase engagement with potential beneficiaries
• Encourage multi-funding streams instead on relying on one single funding stream
• Encoaurages more colloaborations with other organsiations to improve outcomes further
• Enhanced service reach
• Offers the opportunity to integrate with top clinical health and social care systems to create a better joined-up approach for the community
• Create stronger and more sustainable partnerships
• Offers the opportunity to secure future funding more effectively