Social Prescribing in Wales – What is it?

Social prescribing in general is a non-clinical preventative approach that focuses on connecting citizens to community support to better manage their health and wellbeing.

In Wales, it predominantly is based in the community with social prescribers, social prescribing link workers, and community navigators alike being funded by voluntary sector organisations.

Here individuals can be referred in multiple ways to start their social prescribing journey whether it’s a clinical referral, a social one, or a self-referral there are many ways Welsh individuals can seek the support they need.

Within Wales, social prescribing is part of a wider movement signifying a shift from traditional top-down models of care delivered in hospitals and GP surgeries, to a non-medical approach concentrating on and promoting what matters to the individual, to increase independence and personal responsibility.

Through gaining strong support across Wales, the importance of social prescribing has been identified through legislation and policy statements to make the approach accessible to all, and better address the wider social determinants of health.

Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing in Wales, Lynne Neagle has explained that:

“ Social prescribing is woven into the very fabric of what the Welsh Government does in terms of empowering people and communities. We committed to introducing an all-Wales framework to roll out social prescribing to tackle isolation and improve outcomes for people by giving them more choice and control over their lives. It can also provide an improved sense of belonging when people get involved in the community. ”

The Development of Social Prescribing in Wales

Over the last 10 years, Social Prescribing in Wales has grown organically with awareness and implementation developing sustainably over time due to strong backing from the Welsh Government.

Below is a timeline of how Welsh social prescribing has developed over the last 10 years:

1. 2014 - Social Services and Well-Being Act (Wales) 2014 was established highlighting the importance of addressing health inequalities and strengthening community cohesion.
2. 2015 - The Well-Being of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015 was established to outline the Welsh government’s long-term plan for health and social care ‘A healthier Wales’.
3. 2016 – Programme for government commitment to run mental health social prescribing pilots
4. 2017 – Senedd plenary debate on social prescribing
5. 2017 – Evidence map and narrative summary published
6. 2018 - ‘Social Prescribing in Wales’ document published
7. 2019- Connected communities strategy for loneliness and isolation including national actions on social prescribing
8. 2020 – WSPRRN becomes the Wales School for Social Prescribing Research
9. 2021 – Programme for government commitment to develop a National Framework for Social Prescribing in Wales (NFfSP)
10. 2021 – Welsh Parliament research briefing published
11. 2021 – ‘Understanding Social Prescribing in Wales’ published
12. 2022 – Social prescribing interface paper published
13. 2022 – Consultation exercise on NFfSP launched
14. 2023 – NFfSP published along with explainer video, glossary of terms, and a competency framework
15. 2024 onwards – The remaining components of NFfSP will be published and implementation of NFfSP monitored

Following this progression in the last 10 years,  the Welsh government’s commitment to introducing a Wales framework to roll out social prescribing is arguably one of the biggest driving forces. The Programme for Government 2021 to 2026 therefore sets out the rollout of social prescribing across Wales to tackle isolation whilst recognising the breadth of potential for many more health and wellbeing benefits going forward.

Social Prescribing in Wales Outcomes

With the awareness of social prescribing building across Wales so has the evidence for it too, helping encourage the preventative approach even further.

Notably, a baseline study conducted by the Welsh government has demonstrated the growth trajectory in the uptake of Welsh social prescribing and its impacts between 2018 to 2021.

This study demonstrates the benefits of raising awareness of social prescribing and how it has allowed stronger multi-disciplinary teams to be developed, as well as broadening the general public’s understanding of social prescribing, increasing the likelihood of them using the service first-hand.

The data from this study, provided by Data Cymru, shows that both the number of social prescribing referrals and the number of people using the service more than doubled during those three years from 10,000 referrals to 25,000.

Following the success of pilots, awareness being raised from various studies, and social prescribing being embedded in legislation, now Welsh Local Governments are working hard to deliver the National Framework for Social Prescribing in Wales across the country by working towards delivering these long-term outcomes:

1. Improving the population's mental wellbeing and reducing overall prevalence and inequalities within mental health
2. Improving the population's physical wellbeing and reduce overall prevalence and inequalities within physical ill health
3. Improving the population’s social wellbeing and reduction in overall prevalence and inequalities within poor social wellbeing, loneliness, and isolation
4. A system impact on the wider determinants of health
5. Improve community wellbeing
   
   

Why is social prescribing in Wales important?

Like social prescribing as a whole, social prescribing in Wales is crucial because it offers a holistic approach to healthcare by not just addressing the physical symptoms of illness but also the social, emotional, and environmental factors that contribute to wellbeing.

Here healthcare and social care professionals, Link Workers, as well as other organsiatons, can work collaboratively to prescribe non-medical interventions to cater support to what individuals across Wales need, from arts programs, walking clubs, and gardening.

Social prescribing across Wales therefore can significantly improve an individual’s quality of life, reduce health inequalities and disparities, as well as foster social connections and community cohesion to support the overall wellbeing of individuals and communities.

The importance of social prescribing in Wales has also been raised significantly by additional programmes aiming to make mental health and wellbeing support more widespread across the area. One of the main ones is Made in North Wales.

Made in North Wales

The Made in North Wales approach aimed to increase the importance of Welsh social prescribing by targeting more appropriate use of health and wellbeing services, improving health and wellbeing outcomes for residents across North Wales, maximise the use of community assets, and ensure support is accessible to as many people within the community as possible.

Through proposing models across primary care and community services in North Wales several social prescribing services were established.

Here this model has helped primary care teams to be the focal point for managing referrals from one cluster to another. This, in turn, has enabled multiple referral routes into the social prescribing program to prove evidence for social prescribing in North Wales fostering collaboration and creating stronger multi-disciplinary teams.

Embedding primary care in the centre of the model has also raised awareness of social prescribing across primary care professionals to help drive better outcomes and enable more individuals to be engaged in the mental health and wellbeing support available.

Raising awareness of social prescribing in Wales highlights how collaboration amongst stakeholders is important to improve engagement, outcomes, and wellbeing, which in turn helps prove the business case for social prescribing to secure more funding in the future, making it more sustainable and widespread in the long term.

Welsh social prescribing in action

As social prescribing in Wales has grown organically over the years there are many examples of best practices.

Through its progression, development, and improved outcomes, social prescribing models have been adapted to be facilitated in a variety of sectors as well as primary care including higher education and housing.

At Access Elemental Social Prescribing, we love to help both existing social prescribing services grow as well as start-up services across Wales. When implemented successfully, major outcomes can be achieved including reduced admissions and GP attendance, which in turn reduces pressure on primary care services, as well as notable cost savings which can be reinvested to improve services further.

Warm Wales, is just one example of a customer we have helped to better facilitate social prescribing services across Wales whilst combatting fuel poverty.

Here Warm Wales is an example of one of the oldest community interest companies that offers both free advice and support across Wales and South West England to address one of the biggest wider social determinants of health, housing.

Working with us, they have been able to move away from CRM systems to one centralised system that offers fully flexible referral pathways to help them track individual journeys from start to finish. This has enabled them to share their message that health starts at home to offer earlier interventions, encourage conversations, and offer preventative support to help keep people well, away from GP surgeries and prevent declines in both their physical and mental health.

Since they started working with us in 2020, they have delivered over 7,600 interventions and generated cost savings of over £500,000.

Here we have enabled Warm Wales to radically change how they deliver support to make Link Workers’ jobs more streamlined to provide reassurance that people are getting the help they need and deserve.

Through having more robust reporting, Warm Wales provides more effective and personalised support to prove the business case for social prescribing in housing across Wales which has helped end-users reduce loneliness and anxiety, as well as secure future funding to gain more projects and develop further in the future.

It is clear therefore that embracing digital social prescribing across Wales enables services, local authorities, and primary care professionals to support more people in a more personalised way to encourage them to have more control over their health and wellbeing.

National Framework for Social Prescribing in Wales – How can Access Elemental Social Prescribing deliver the best models?

This article has reviewed what social prescribing is and how it works especially across Wales thanks to the preventative, non-clinical approach being embedded in different legislation and health and wellbeing policies.

Through explaining its progression, this article has identified that the approach has grown organically over the last 10 years with an accelerated increase in the last 6 to 7 years.

This article has highlighted that the turning point in the development of Welsh social prescribing was when it was declared a national framework would be created. Here this new legislation provides a step-by-step process of what is to be expected when offered a social prescribing software.

By explaining the importance and benefits of social prescribing, this article has highlighted the importance of raising its awareness to boost engagement and how that in turn helps create more sustainable models with reliable funding streams in the future.

Social prescribing in Wales therefore is popular and important as it has the flexibility to adapt and cater to every individual. Here the wider social determinants of health and avoidable health inequalities can be better addressed to target more specific groups of people so no one goes without the help they deserve.

Better population health management approaches can be used to target support to population groups that are often underserved including socially deprived and remote populations.

Digital social prescribing is one example that can better facilitate this and overcome any particular challenges including funding.

At Access Elemental Social Prescribing we know that if social prescribing services in Wales gain better visibility of their community, they can optimise their resource allocation to have better control in reaching demands and providing services across the community.

Warm Wales, is just one example of how our system can adapt to help support services across a variety of sectors reduce dependency and demand on primary care settings, by offering a holistic and effective approach that matters to the individual. Through using our social prescribing software they have been able to help individuals live happier, healthier, and warmer lives without having to worry about how they will pay for their next heating bill.

 Learn more about how our social prescribing software supports services across Wales today. Find out first-hand the benefits you, your end-users, and your community can experience by being able to effectively improve the overall mental health and wellbeing of your community by contacting us now.