As Mayor of Greater Manchester, he gave the keynote speech at the 3rd International Social Prescribing Network conference, organised by the Social Prescribing Network, in 2021. He said:
“Health is built in homes, it is built in families, it is built in workplaces, it is built in communities… You’ve got to build from the bottom up, you’ve got to make social interventions your first offer to the public, not an afterthought or something that you might eventually get round to. You need a structure for social prescribing, you need to fund it, you need sustainable organisations as equal trusted partners in the mix.”
Live Well: linking social prescribing to employment and benefits support
Burnham, who was Health Secretary from 2009-10, also developed the Live Well programme in Manchester, bringing together NHS social prescribing services, local authorities and voluntary sector organisations to promote health and wellbeing.
Expanding Live Well was one of his main priorities when he stood for re-election in 2024. His manifesto said:
“It is time to rethink how we help people to live the best life they can and how public services work with them to achieve that. Too many of our residents are living every day with worries about the cost of the basics and the security of their jobs and homes. Those pressures can be destructive of their mental health and well-being. Society has changed – and yet public services largely haven’t. [...]
“On the Live Well foundations we have already created, established by the extension of social prescribing in recent years, we will ask for devolution of employment support funding and changes in the way the local Job Centre Plus estate is used. Using the flexibility that comes with our new single settlement, we will seek to create a single Live Well service connecting DWP resources, primary care social prescribing and new funding from the GM level switched towards prevention.”
The Power of Music
Later in 2024, as part of Live Well, he joined Greater Manchester NHS in supporting NASP’s Power of Music Fund, funding Manchester Camerata and partners to set up a Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia.
The centre is now directly supporting people living with dementia through music, and also building up the evidence for the impact that this can have on health and on NHS services.
At the launch event in October 2024, Burnham said:
“This is fantastic news for Greater Manchester, and a reminder of the power of music to shape our lives and our communities… This project will provide life-changing support to people with dementia and their carers in our 10 boroughs – support that is grounded in our communities and delivered with a real expert focus. It will also generate groundbreaking research that will influence health and care policy across the country while directly improving lives across Greater Manchester.”
Since 2024, Burnham has launched a Nature Recovery Strategy for Manchester, highlighting the importance of green spaces for health and wellbeing, and has also continued to champion creative health approaches.
Cross-party support for social prescribing
Social prescribing has had support from parties across the UK’s political system. Originally introduced into health policy under Labour in 2006, social prescribing was expanded nationally across England through the NHS Long Term Plan in 2019, under a Conservative government. Â
It was championed by successive Conservative Health Secretaries, including Matt Hancock and Sajid Javid. Conservative ministers launched a range of social prescribing initiatives, including the cross-Government Green Social Prescribing programme and Active Travel social prescribing pilots. Â
The 2024 Labour government continued to support social prescribing, and it is now playing a key role in the implementation of neighbourhood health and as part of the Government’s recently announced fit note pilots.Â
Social prescribing has also been included as a commitment in recent Liberal Democrat and Plaid Cymru manifestos.Â
As a charity, we are looking forward to working with the new Prime Minister and his team, as well as with politicians from across the political spectrum, to build on what has already been achieved.Â
