England was the first country in the world to embed social prescribing in national health policy. Since 2019, NASP has been at the heart of rolling it out - providing guidance, evidence and best practice - and hundreds of thousands of people are now referred by GPs to social prescribing each year.
Our International Programme turns that experience into lasting impact for partners abroad. We have worked with governments and health partners in more than 35 countries, recently supporting the French and Japanese governments on their approaches, alongside long-term partnerships with Canada, the USA and Denmark.
Wherever you are in the world, we can help you design, evidence and scale social prescribing in your own context.
Global recognition for England’s leadership in social prescribing
The National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) is the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Social Prescribing Policy and Development - the first European Collaborating Centre for social prescribing.
WHO Collaborating Centres are institutions recognised for outstanding scientific leadership, strong national standing and a proven track record of high-quality work in support of WHO priorities. We work in partnership with WHO to help governments and health systems worldwide develop and implement effective approaches to social prescribing.
Our International Social Prescribing Collaborative
NASP is a founding member and proudly part of the International Social Prescribing Collaborative (ISPC). As the secretariat of this global group, we work with international colleagues around the world to raise awareness, spread and scale efforts in social prescribing. We are now connected with leaders and people delivering social prescribing on every continent, in more than 35 countries, including the US and Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia. Our partnerships are built on collaboration and knowledge-sharing to adopt social prescribing policy and practice in different health system contexts.
Check out our LinkedIn page for the latest news and updates.
International Arts on Prescription Collaborative
The International Arts on Prescription Collaborative was convened by NASP in late 2025 following the ISPC’s identification of a need for a more thematically focused subgroup. The Collaborative brings together professionals involved in Arts on Prescription (AOP) initiatives to share knowledge, strengthen practice, and support global innovation in the field. Through regular meetings and events, members exchange insights, explore emerging approaches, and build partnerships across sectors and countries. Open to individuals working in arts social prescribing within non-profit or statutory/government-funded organisations, the Collaborative aims to raise the profile of AOP and highlight its growing importance in improving wellbeing.
Please contact [email protected] if you are interested in joining.
What is the evidence for social prescribing?
NASP also set up the International Evidence Collaborative (IEC) with a set of core academic partners to understand and advance the research on social prescribing in the UK and abroad. Working with the Social Prescribing Network, NASP’s IEC has delivered a series of online seminars to share and discuss the latest evidence from research projects exploring the impact of social prescribing. Members of the IEC have also been commissioned to conduct evidence reviews on a wide range of social prescribing topics.
Helpful resources
Social prescribing around the world
What does social prescribing look like globally? This report explores social prescribing in 31 countries. There is no single best practice for social prescribing, but what can we learn from one another?
How we can support your organisation
Resources
In additional to our free webinars and online resources, we have collaborated with international experts and pioneers of national social prescribing movements to produce a range of assets and reports including:
- Five Steps to Social Prescribing Workforce Development
- Implementing Social Prescribing and Forging Sustainable Community Relationships
- Social Prescribing in Action: Seven Universal Building Blocks for Achieving ‘Good’ Social Prescribing
- Ensuring Clinical and Non-clinical Staff Engagement in Social Prescribing: NHS Social Prescribing Clinical Champion Programme Case Study
We have also created 7 video learning chapters on social prescribing implementation and practice including:
- An introduction to Social Prescribing
- Workforce development
- Evidence and researching social prescribing, Community development and voluntary sector support
- Healthcare staff involvement
- Medical education for future healthcare workers
- Social Prescribing case studies
- Mapping Social Prescribing across the World
Consultancy, Learning Visits and Workshops
We are proud to be one of the leading organisations to share knowledge and learning about social prescribing across the world. Last year alone, we welcomed 200+ people for international learning visits from 21 different countries, to learn about developments in England and understand how social prescribing is solving complex challenges in healthcare.
Our consultancy team can deliver a comprehensive package suited to your specific requirements and we can bring in leading experts in social prescribing from across the globe through our network of international partners.
We can plan learning visits on-site, delivering workshops and presentations or strategy sessions on models for change, understanding the local context and implementing complementary solutions to workforce planning, community relations building, staff adoption and engagement, and much more!
Get in touch for more information and to hear how we can support you.
