Developing a research agenda for social prescribing in the UK using lessons from the US

‘Social prescribing’ is a central component of NHS England’s long-term plan to provide more personalised care and reduce health inequalities. In social prescribing programmes, general practice staff refer patients to ‘link workers’ who connect patients with community-based services to address non-medical needs. In 2019, NHS England committed to a national rollout of social prescribing by funding a link worker for each of England’s 1300 Primary Care Networks — groups of general practices covering populations of around 30 000–50 000 people.

Despite widespread policy support, research on the implementation and impact of social prescribing is limited and inconclusive. Many social prescribing evaluations have been of low methodological quality — with small numbers of participants, weak designs, no control groups, short durations, little consideration of confounding factors, and considerable loss to follow-up.

In response to the weak evidence base, researchers have called for a coordinated evaluation framework to help develop a common body of knowledge on social prescribing.3 The National Academy of Social Prescribing in the UK launched an academic collaborative to define evidence gaps. The National Institute for Health and Care Research recently funded a multi-region evaluation of the national rollout in primary care.