By making the case for social prescribing, Westminster researchers have helped to revolutionise NHS primary care, improving patient outcomes and creating new jobs.
Sometimes 10-minute GP consultations are just not enough to deal with complex and multiple health concerns. These range from the management of infections, diabetes, and mental health concerns to social problems like isolation.
Social prescribing (SP) involves GPs, nurses and other primary care professionals referring a patient to a ‘link worker’ to discuss problems at length. Together, patients and link workers work out a non-medical plan to address complex needs. Said another way, they co-produce a social prescription.
Since 2013, Dr Marie Polley, Dr Alison Fixsen, Professor Damien Ridge, Dr Karen Pilkington, and Visiting Professor Michael Dixon, have sought to evaluate and evidence the effectiveness of SP.
This research led to the establishment of the Social Prescribing Network, which has helped to shape Greater London and UK-wide healthcare policy.
The Social Prescribing Network
The Social Prescribing Network (SPN) was founded in October 2015 by Polley and Dixon, in collaboration with Pilkington and Ridge.
It was launched in the House of Commons in March 2016, with the aim of promoting greater SP uptake in the NHS.
With funding from NHS England, seven regional networks were created to enable further SP integration across England – these networks were later extended to include Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
This capacity building was key to the adoption of SP by the Greater London Authority and its incorporation into the NHS Long Term Plan.
This plan was launched in July 2019 and saw “the biggest investment in social prescribing by any national health system”.
Working with London health policymakers
The SPN played a key role in building London’s SP strategy, beginning with their convening a 2018 conference to develop “a social prescribing road map for London”.
One outcome of this conference was the founding of the Social Prescribing Advisory Group.
This group consists of Dr Polly and Visiting Professor Dixon (as the co-chairs of SPN), senior leaders from the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Healthy London Partnership (HLP), as well as other key London-based health organisations.
Working together, the Advisory Group sought to understand the challenges and provide the practical solutions that would widen SP’s reach across London.
This work led to SP being formally incorporated into the GLA’s 2018 London Health Inequalities Strategy, which seeks to ensure: “Social prescribing becomes a routine part of community support across London”.
To ensure this objective would be met, SPN co-produced, with the HLP and Mayor of London, the 2019 policy document, Next Steps for Social Prescribing in London.
As such, University of Westminster researchers played a key role in both prioritising SP within the GLA health strategy and enabling its roll out across London.
Incorporating Social Prescribing into the NHS Long-Term Plan
The NHS Long Term Plan lays out the new NHS service model to optimise patients’ care, offering them more options and better support – with SP taking centre stage.
The NHS aims to enable over 900,000 people to be referred to SP schemes by 2024, alleviating pressure on GPs, improving healthcare, and creating a new workforce of 1,000 trained SP link workers.
The Westminster team played a significant role in achieving this integration of SP within NHS England strategy, through engagement with both clinical leaders and government advisors.
“The Social Prescribing Network was influential, as it contained senior clinical leaders, including CCG (Clinical Commissioning Groups) commissioners, who were able to articulate the benefits of social prescribing,” said a senior member of the NHS England Personalised Care Group.
It would be fair to say that without the support of the Social Prescribing Network, I may not have had the courage and confidence to develop social prescribing within NHS England, to articulate the need, benefits and influence policy direction. Personalised Care Group.
- A senior member of the NHS England
In 2017, this individual commissioned Dr Polley to translate her research knowledge into national guidance for initiating SP schemes. The resulting report – Making Sense of Social Prescribing (2017) – features on the NHS Social Prescribing webpage.
Another commissioned study produced by Polley and colleagues found an average 24% reduction in A&E visits and 28% reduction in GP visits where SP schemes were in place – this translates into a saving of £2.30 for every £1 invested in the first year.
This Westminster research fed into government policy on SP.
The October 2018 report, A Connected Society: A Strategy for Tackling Loneliness, used Polley’s findings as evidential support for making SP “a core element of local provision, enabling more agencies and organisations to make referrals to existing social prescribing schemes. This mark[ed] a fundamental shift in the role of public services, recognising the importance of wellbeing and people’s social connections”.
A month later, speaking at the SPN’s second national conference, former Health Secretary Matt Hancock MP said he could see social prescribing “becoming an indispensable tool for GPs, just like a thermometer or a stethoscope might be today”.
The adoption of Polley’s evidence-base within government policymaking was also aided by Visiting Professor Michael Dixon.
As the NHS’s National Clinical Lead for Social Prescription and co-chair of the 2000-member strong SPN, Dixon used Polley’s research findings to successfully lobby the Government to adopt SP.
The Director of Primary and Community Health Care within the Cabinet Office credits Dixon’s ability to “argue a compelling vision of what might be possible through adopting such an approach” as helping to embed his “strategic vision” on SP within the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England.
Watch the video Matt Hancock MP’s keynote address at the SPN’s second national conference, November 2018 on YouTube
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