A major study by University College London (UCL) suggests that social prescribing is linked to “sizeable” improvements in wellbeing - equivalent to a £9 return in social value for every £1 invested.
The study, published in the journal Nature Health, analysed data from 19,627 people in the UK who had been referred to a Social Prescribing Link Worker (either by a GP or through community referrals) and who had their change in wellbeing recorded.
Social prescribing linked to significant improvements to wellbeing
The team found consistent improvements across all the measures of wellbeing they assessed, including a large improvement in general mental wellbeing, alongside additional improvements in happiness, life satisfaction, anxiety levels and a sense of life being worthwhile, in the months after initial referral.
Return on investment
They found that the increase in life satisfaction over two and a half months was equivalent to more than £4,000*, using a UK Treasury-recommended approach for assessing value for money. This, they said, meant that every £1 invested in social prescribing yielded a £9 social return, using the measure of life satisfaction alone.
The paper was the second paper published as part of the National Centre for Social Prescribing Data and Analysis, established by NASP and UCL.
Lead author Dr Feifei Bu (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care) said: “Our study advances the evidence on the impact of social prescribing and shows improvements to wellbeing across multiple measures. Importantly, these improvements are consistent across socioeconomic groups, meaning social prescribing has a very wide potential benefit.”
Senior author Professor Daisy Fancourt (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care) said: “Research on social prescribing has been ongoing for a number of years now in the UK, with local trials and evaluations reporting similar 20% improvements in wellbeing. This study provides crucial large-scale data to corroborate those findings at a national level and advances our understanding of how social prescribing provides financial return on investment.”
Charlotte Osborn-Forde, Chief Executive of NASP, said: “This study makes an important contribution to the growing evidence base for social prescribing. It's particularly encouraging that this large-scale research mirrors other findings showing clear increases in wellbeing. These results should give health leaders further confidence that social prescribing is an effective and cost-efficient way to help shift our health system from treatment to prevention.
“Expanding the number of link workers - who support people with issues such as debt, housing or employment, and help connect them with local groups and activities - can help more patients improve their wellbeing.”
How this adds to previous research
Previous research on social prescribing has shown:
- The roll-out of Social Prescribing Link Workers in England was associated with improvements in a range of patient outcomes, according to a national evaluation led by the University of Manchester.
- The cross-Government Green Social Prescribing programme led to significant improvements in wellbeing and mental health among participants, according to an independent evaluation.
- Social prescribing can lead to reductions in unnecessary health service use and costs, especially among people who more often access services.
- Social prescribing is linked to potential improvements in Quality Adjusted Life Years – a crucial metric in assessing value for money of NHS initiatives, based on data collected by the charity Involve Kent.
How this study was carried out
For this study, the UCL team aimed to look at how wellbeing scores shifted following a referral to a Social Prescribing Link Worker. On average, scores were compared across a period of two and a half months.
A limitation of the study, the team said, is that it was an evaluation of large-scale service delivery, so it lacked a control group, which is important for attributing improvements in wellbeing to social prescribing participation rather than some other cause. However, the team noted the improvements were in line with past randomised controlled trials of referrals to specific arts or voluntary activities and provided an important triangulation using alternative research approaches at larger scale than previously possible.
The team used anonymised patient data from Access Elemental, a social prescribing software provider. The work received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP).
The researchers used Wellbeing-Adjusted Life Years (WELLBYs), in which a one-point increase in life satisfaction over a year has a value of £13,000.
