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The Green Social Prescribing Toolkit is designed to help communities, organisations and health professionals who are looking to set up green social prescribing programmes that connect with local health systems.
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What is Green Social Prescribing?
Green social prescribing is the practice of supporting people to engage in nature-based interventions and activities to improve their mental and physical health. Social prescribing link workers (and other trusted professionals in allied roles) connect people to community groups and agencies for practical and emotional support, based on a ‘what matters to you’ conversation.
Green Social Prescribing Test and Learn Programme
Launched in April 2021, the first phase of the £5.77 million cross government programme was supported by the Treasury Shared Outcomes Fund with additional funds from NHS England, Sport England and National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP). It was project managed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) with support of national partners Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), Natural England, Sport England and NASP. The test and learn site delivery was project managed by NHS England.
The project set out to test how to embed green social prescribing into communities in order to:
- Improve mental health outcomes
- Reduce health inequalities
- Reduce demand on the health and social care system
- Develop best practice in making green social activities more resilient and accessible
The programme included:
- Support for seven test and learn Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) to tackle and prevent mental ill-health, including financial resource, national programme support and a programme wide community of practice
- Expressions of interest were invited from ICSs experiencing the impact of Covid 19 and health inequalities as well as mental health need
- Programme partners, DHSC, commissioned two pieces of research; one into perceptions of green social prescribing amongst patients, potential users and clinicians and one to understand capacity in the green sector, to support wider delivery, beyond the test and learn sites
- A national evaluation project managed by Defra
The programme has now been extended for another year, with nearly £4 million of further funding being provided by the Government's Shared Outcomes Fund and partners organisations. It will now end on 31st March 2025.
This second phase of funding will allow us to address evidence gaps and focus on key areas to support the spread and scale of green social prescribing.
Results and findings
- Over 8,500 people were referred to a green social prescribing activity during the programme from April 2021-March 2023.
- Evaluation findings showed statistically significant improvements in mental health and wellbeing and strong engagement in communities experiencing high levels of social inequalities that affect health and wellbeing.
- Green social prescribing was shown be relatively cost-effective compared to other mental health interventions. For every £1 invested by central government, the programme generated a social return on investment of up to £2.42.
- 57% of participants were from the most socio-economically deprived areas and 21% of participants were from ethnic minority populations.
- 85% uptake of green social prescriptions when offered
- Green networks have been established in all test and learn sites
- Integrated workforce development has increased trust and understanding between delivery partners and healthcare providers, leading to more referrals to suitable green activities
- Green social prescribing is represented in policy and strategy at a national and local level across different government sectors
Green Social Prescribing Toolkit
The learning from the programme has been captured in a Green Social Prescribing Toolkit designed to help communities, organisations and health professionals who are looking to set up green social prescribing programmes that connect with local health systems.
The toolkit includes details of the project, including:
- Information about specific projects involved in the pilot
- Templates and guidelines for getting started and best practice
- Links to evaluation and research
- Links to other useful resources
Whilst this toolkit focusses on green social prescribing, the framework could be adapted for other activity types including arts, heritage and physical activity.
What is the evidence for Green Social Prescribing?
The evidence for all types of social prescribing is growing. Nature-based social prescribing can have positive effects on health and wellbeing and is particularly shown to reduce loneliness.
National Research
National Evaluation
The evaluation of the Green Social Prescribing Programme to Tackle and Prevent Mental Ill Health demonstrates that helping people to engage in nature-based activities - including horticulture, conservation work or nature-based exercise groups - can improve mental health. The programme has been extended until April 2025.
DHSC has also commissioned and funded four clinical research studies testing the effectiveness of green social prescribing on mental health outcomes. These studies have been commissioned by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) and if found to be feasible, there are plans for full-scale studies.
- A development and feasibility study for a Randomised Control Trial (RCT) of nature-based social prescribing for mental health
- A nature-based intervention to improve mental health: Efficacy of an angling intervention for military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder
- Outdoor swimming as a nature-based social prescribing intervention for depression: a feasibility randomised control trial
- A short-term evaluability assessment looking at what works for whom in what contexts for Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups
