Social Prescribing Unit

• Sam Pywell (Coordinator of Social Prescribing Unit)

Steering group 

• Professor StJohn Crean
• Professor David Morris
• Jez Buffin
• Bryan Jones
• Dr Julie Ridley

• CESP: Community Enhanced Social Prescribing by Professor David Morris, Dr. Julie Ridley and colleagues. 
• NIHR: Digital information tools within different models of social prescribing. Sam Pywell and Belinda Hornby are volunteers within this NIHR study.
• Healthy Ageing Cluster

Green Social Prescribing

Researchers at UCLan are leading an evaluation of ten Green Social Prescribing Projects in West Yorkshire to understand the benefits to communities and their environments.

The projects, funded by West Yorkshire and Harrogate NHS Trust, include activities such as food growing, exercising, cooking, tree planting and woodwork and range from small ‘pocket parks’ to allotments and green corridors. By engaging with people who are typically less likely to experience the health benefits from natural settings such as people experiencing anxiety and depression, hospital in-patients and people from disadvantaged backgrounds, these interventions aim to reduce health inequalities.

Dr Alexander Montasem and Dr Anna Kenyon, both based at UCLan’s School of Medicine are working with researchers at the University of York, and have developed a framework evaluating:

• health and wellbeing outcomes to participants
• Environmental benefits (for example biodiversity, flood regulation)
• Social Return on Investment
• The sustainability (duration) of the projects.

This multifaceted approach aims to provide insight into how green social prescribing can support people’s wellbeing as well as the wider impact on communities and their physical and social environments.

Dr Anna Kenyon said, "Social prescribing is high on the political agenda and we want to use the evidence from this evaluation to help support future initiatives reach the right people in the right places at the right time."

The projects aim to tackle health inequalities and generate sustainable community development and climate change mitigation. 

SIG:SPR (Specialist Interest Group: Social Prescribing Research)

Supporting and promoting development of research activities relating to social prescribing, professional and community practices.

• Being a catalyst for research and development specific to social prescribing and inequities
• Connecting researchers and academics with local partners (social prescribers, community, link workers, commissioners, external organisations & researchers)
• Initiating research partnerships which breakdown traditional barriers and boundaries
• Look at social prescribing in a different way

• NASP
• The Kings Fund
• NHSE Personalised Care
• NHSE Social Prescribing
• Community-Enhanced Social Prescribing: Integrating Community in Policy and Practice
• National Association of Link Workers (NALW)
• Social Prescribing Network (SPN) 
• North West Population Health and Prevention Network (NWPHPN)
• Personalised Care Interprofessional Education Network (PERcie)

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