Impact case study database

The research team has brought findings to the attention of relevant policy makers locally and nationally through 22 policy and practice focussed outputs; keynote presentations at three national policy conferences; and more than 20 local and regional workshops, seminars and policy conferences. Between 2014 and 2019 more than 2,000 policy makers and practitioners attended these presentations.

The team has provided expert advice to policy makers and practitioners developing SP interventions. For example, in 2017-2018 Dayson advised NHS England on the development of the National Outcome Framework for SP, which aims to enhance and standardise evaluation practice locally and nationally.

CRESR’s SP expertise has reached an international audience through Dayson’s TEDx Talk in May 2017 (c.4,000 views), and his keynote address to the International Social Prescribing Conference at the University of Salford in July 2018. Policy makers and practitioners from the USA, Japan, Denmark and New Zealand have drawn on the research to develop plans to implement SP in their own countries.

The research has had a catalytic effect on the development and implementation of SP in the English NHS, leading to changes in both local and then national policy and resource allocations. These changes have benefitted both people with long-term health conditions and also voluntary organisations and community groups working in localities characterised by high levels of health inequalities. There are two key areas of impact:

Our research programme on SP started at a local level: primarily in Rotherham, Doncaster and Bradford. The findings and evidence generated though this research have been pivotal to policy and resourcing decisions taken by local healthcare commissioners. This led to commissioners making long-term investments in SP in these local areas.

Rotherham is an example of a local area where, since 2014-2015, the research has been particularly influential. The former CEO of Voluntary Action Rotherham provided testimony (E2, December 2019) which exemplifies the impact of the research on local funding decisions:

“The two evaluation reports produced about the pilot provided us with vital evidence that helped convince our commissioners – NHS Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Group – to make a long term investment in the service (at the end of our current contract the service will have been commissioned for 10 years). The CCG commented that of all the services they had commissioned through non-recurrent funding at that time our evaluation was by far the most convincing.”

“By the end of 2019/2020, the investment by NHS Rotherham CCG in our Social Prescribing Service since 2014/2015 will have amounted to around £2.5 million to support people with long-term health conditions and a further £0.8 million to support discharge from community mental health services. As a result of this long-term funding commitment Voluntary Action Rotherham has been able to support more than 5,000 people with long-term physical and mental health conditions and provide more than 30 small community-based VSCEs [voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations] with an additional £1.6 million in grants to support the local implementation of social prescribing and ensure the sustainability of these small providers.” Former Chief Executive Officer, Voluntary Action Rotherham, testimonial (December 2019) (E2).

This testimony is supported by a confidential note from NHS Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Group Operational Executive (E8, 02/11/15), which shows that the Rotherham SP service was rated highest due to the quality of CRESR’s evaluation evidence presented.

The impact of the research has gone beyond the local areas in which the studies were undertaken. Findings have been used by healthcare commissioners in public and VCSE organisations in other local areas to make the case for the strategic prioritisation of SP and the allocation of resources for its development and implementation. For example, in 2020 Dayson collaborated with the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw NHS Integrated Care System to deploy the research evidence to help them secure GBP500,000 in central government funding. This funding established a national ‘test and learn’ site for the development of new approaches to ‘green’ social prescribing in local areas disproportionately affected by health inequalities and the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic.

Further evidence of the reach and impact of this research can be found in references to the research in high profile local publications advocating investment in social prescribing such as: the Mayor of London Consultation on the London Health Inequalities Strategy (E9, 2017, page 96); and the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Strategic Transformation Plan (E10, 2016, page 31).

NHS England has confirmed (E1) that our research into SP provided vital evidence which contributed to the decision to invest in a universal SP model as part of the ten year NHS Long Term Plan (published in 2019). This led NHS England to invest GBP35,000,000 per year in SP from 2019 onwards. This funding enables each Primary Care Network (covering a population of 30,000-50,000 people) to employ a SP link worker to work with referrals to develop tailored plans which connect individuals to local groups and support services. As a result an additional 1,000 trained link workers will be in place with the capacity to refer at least 900,000 people per year to SP schemes in local communities across England.

The people benefitting from these newly funded SP services will include individuals with long-term health conditions; those who need support with their mental health; the lonely or isolated; and those with complex social needs. The national SP provision will enable them to access new forms of social and community activity in their locality in order to help improve their health and wellbeing, and also to reduce their need for unplanned care.

The following testimony from a representative of NHS England’s Personalised Care Group illustrates how NHS England utilised our research (E1):

“… the research carried out by Sheffield Hallam University into social prescribing … has demonstrated that social prescribing can drive outcomes against the three key areas identified in the common outcomes framework for social prescribing … Core to this has been the ability to link and follow people’s use of urgent and emergency and secondary care services (Hospital Episodes Statistics), which many local evaluations to date have been unable to do at scale. As such, the findings have formed a core part of the evidence base used to drive NHS England’s policy to embed a social prescribing link worker in every Primary Care Network, as outlined in the Long-Term Plan and Universal Personalised Care.” NHS England Representative of Strategy and Innovation Directorate, testimonial (August 2019) (E1).

Further evidence of how our research has influenced this policy development is provided by references in the official NHS England guidance published alongside the NHS Long Term Plan (E3: ‘Universal Personalised Care: Implementing the Comprehensive Model’ 2019, p. 51; and E4: ‘Social Prescribing and Community-Based Support: Summary Guide 2019, p. 7).

This major national policy change was preceded by a series of other central government initiatives and strategies which were informed by our research and evidence base. These included the cross-Governmental Loneliness Strategy, and the Department of Health and Social Care Prevention Strategy both of which sought to bring SP into mainstream policy. Our research was pivotal in providing evidence which informed these policy developments (E5, 2018, p. 26; and E6, 2018, p. 26). Our research has been referenced in more than 20 public policy documents associated with these new policies. In addition, the Kings Fund has also drawn on our research to inform its own guidance around SP (E7). Over a period of 3-4 years, our research has therefore been crucial in building the evidence base and momentum that has enabled NHS England to make such a scale of investment and commitment to SP in its Long-Term Plan.