Those commissioning, managing and working in personalised care and services across Integrated Care Systems want to know if social prescribing works and whether it can reduce health service use and costs. This session shares findings from a recently published NASP briefing showing where social prescribing has worked to do this. The panel includes those who have carried out evaluations of social prescribing in practice and data and reflections from social prescribing evaluations are presented by two panel members.
The session will hear from:
Joelle Bradly – National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP)
Joelle, the Deputy Director of Evidence and Impact at NASP Chairs the session, she highlights key points from the NASP briefing that summarised a variety of evaluations of social prescribing in practice.
Jag Mundra - National Association of Primary Care (NAPC)
Jag specialises in operational research and quantitative analysis to support complex decision-making. He has extensive experience helping healthcare teams address health inequalities and demonstrate the value of integrated workforce approaches. He has conducted numerous evaluations of social prescribing to demonstrate its effectiveness in improving population health and reducing health service demand. Jag is currently supporting a large number of improvement projects covering over 10% of primary care.
Professor Chris Dayson at Sheffield Hallam University
Chris is Professor of Voluntary Action, Health and Wellbeing at Sheffield Hallam University. Since 2014 he has been working with NHS commissioners and social prescribing teams in Rotherham to explore patterns in the use of unplanned secondary care for people referred to social prescribing services. During the session Chris presents the latest data (2015/16-2020/21) and provides some critical reflections on the strengths and weaknesses of the approach taken.
