A UCL-led study reveals that over 1.3 million people were referred to social prescribing services by GPs in 2023, surpassing the NHS’s five-year target
A new study from University College London (UCL) has found that social prescribing referrals by GPs in England have significantly exceeded expectations. In 2023 alone, over 1.3 million individuals were referred to this service, more than the NHS’s original five-year target of 900,000.
This initiative, which connects patients with community-based support to address social determinants of health, such as loneliness, housing issues, and financial difficulties, has been a resounding success. The findings underscore the increasing importance and potential of social prescribing in NHS care pathways, offering a promising future for healthcare.
The findings are detailed in The Lancet Public Health.
Supporting patients in the community
Social prescribing was first introduced to the NHS in 2019. Patients will be referred to a Social Prescribing Link Worker, who has time to explore the social factors impacting a person’s health, including debt and isolation. They will then connect the patient with support within their community, including exercise, volunteering, arts, befriending, training courses, and housing support.
Currently, more than 3,300 link workers are employed across the nation. In total, the new analysis suggests that there were 9.4 million GP consultations that involved social prescribing discussions between 2019 and 2023.
This study is the first from the National Centre for Social Prescribing Data and Analysis, a UCL partnership aimed at improving patient record analysis and supporting data-driven social prescribing.
The scale of social prescribing across England
The researchers analysed primary care from 1.2 million patients from 1,736 practices in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) in England. The data was then extrapolated to represent all GP practices in England.
The analysis showed that:
- Growing referrals from deprived areas:
- GP referrals to social prescribing from the most deprived areas rose from 23% before the 2019 national roll-out to 42% in 2023. Earlier UCL research also showed higher social prescribing access from deprived communities compared to more affluent areas.
- Higher referrals among ethnic minorities:
- In 2023, 23% of social prescribing patients were from ethnic minority groups, supporting previous findings that Black, Asian, and minoritised communities are referred at higher rates than their population share.
Professor Daisy Fancourt, senior author of the paper from UCL Behavioural Science & Health and Director of the National Centre for Social Prescribing Data and Analysis, said: “This paper provides the first detailed estimates of the scale and reach of social prescribing across England, demonstrating the programme has generated 5.5 million referrals over five years, with 1.3 million people referred in 2023 alone, far exceeding its intended patient numbers. This underlines what a fundamental service social prescribing now is within the NHS.”
Charlotte Osborn-Forde, Chief Executive of NASP, said: “The new NHS Plan highlights the need to join up the NHS with services like debt and housing advice, and to create much better connections with local charities and community groups. Social prescribing is already playing a key role in this, and we look forward to building on this important initiative.
“Link workers deal with the complicated, knotty problems that have such a big impact on our health, whether that’s sleepless nights and headaches because of debt, or depression and loneliness after a bereavement. They will be a pivotal part of neighbourhood health teams.”
