What is social prescribing and why is it taking off in England?

Published on 27/09/2025 - 8:00 GMT+2

Doctors successful England mention much than 1 cardinal patients each twelvemonth to farming clubs, euphony groups, lodging support, and different non-medical activities to boost their wellbeing, a caller study has found.

Collectively known arsenic societal prescribing, these activities support patients grappling pinch societal problems that impact their wellness – loneliness, grief, finances, housing, employment, aliases thing else.

Doctors mention these patients to “link workers” who thief them create plans to reside these barriers, for example, by having a socially isolated personification walk clip pinch others successful nature.

Advocates person agelong pushed societal prescribing arsenic a strategy to boost diligent outcomes, little aesculapian costs, and relieve unit connected nan wellness strategy – and successful 2019, nan National Health Service (NHS) committed to rolling retired this attack crossed superior attraction clinics successful England.

At nan time, nan NHS said it hoped that 900,000 patients would beryllium referred to these programmes by 2023-2024.

The caller study shows it has acold exceeded that target. An estimated 9.4 cardinal wide practitioner (GP) visits progressive societal prescribing done 2023, starring to 5.5 cardinal referrals.

The findings underscore “what a basal and important work societal prescribing now is wrong nan NHS,” Daisy Fancourt, 1 of nan study’s authors and caput of nan UK’s National Centre for Social Prescribing Data and Analysis, said successful a statement.

The UK has 1 of nan world’s astir precocious societal prescribing systems, but nan activity has besides dispersed to much than 30 countries crossed nan globe.

The study, published successful The Lancet Public Health journal, is nan first successful a bid that will measure societal prescribing’s effectiveness successful England.

Researchers analysed nan aesculapian records of 1.2 cardinal patients from much than 1,700 aesculapian practices, utilizing this information to estimate societal prescribing’s scope crossed nan country.

More than 3,300 nexus workers, who are considered integral to these programmes’ success, are now employed crossed England, nan study found.

“Link workers woody pinch nan complicated, knotty problems that person specified a large effect connected our health, whether that’s sleepless nights and headaches because of debt, aliases slump and loneliness aft a bereavement,” said Charlotte Osborn-Forde, main executive of nan National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP), a nonprofit that promotes nan believe successful nan UK.

The study besides identified a thorny situation for societal prescribing programmes: While a increasing number of referrals are from taste number groups and from England’s astir deprived areas, “persistent sociodemographic disparities” remain.

An ongoing investigation task successful nan European Union intends to place really good nan attack useful to amended wellness for refugees and immigrants, older adults who unrecorded alone, and LGBTQ people.