Report | The Impact of Social Prescribing on Health Service Use and Costs- Examples of Local Evaluations in Practice
Published: Nov 2024
Team Members:
O’Connell Francischetto Elaine, Bradly Joelle, Knight Katy.Institutional or Organizational affiliation:
Evidence and Evaluation Team at the National Academy for Social Prescribing.Status:
CompleteBrief Summary:
The Impact of Social Prescribing on Health Service Use and Costs- Examples of Local Evaluations in Practice
This report summarises the analysis of social prescribing evaluation data from nine local health systems. The data is drawn from publicly available evaluations of social prescribing in England and case studies identified through NASP’s ongoing work with Integrated Care Systems. We acknowledge that the evaluations vary in methodology and quality, and we have excluded evaluations with a sample size of less than 100
What is the aim?
NASP and its academic partners have compiled a series of evidence reviews. However, most reviews rely on published studies and miss local analysis taking place in practice.
Results/Outcomes:
1. Evaluations carried out in nine local health systems across England found that social prescribing can substantially reduce pressure on the NHS, including through reduced GP appointments, reduced hospital admissions and reduced A&E visits.
2. In Tameside and Glossop, an evaluation of 1,751 people referred to social prescribing reported a 42% reduction in GP appointments for those patients.
3. In Kent, an evaluation of 5,908 people seen by a social prescribing Link Worker reported that their A&E attendances reduced by up to 23%.
4. Reductions in demand for health services were particularly high for frequent service users. In Kirklees, social prescribing support for frequent users reduced GP appointments by 50% and A&E attendances by 66%.4 Similar results were reported in Rotherham, where frequent users’ A&E attendances were reduced up to 43%.
5. Social prescribing can also have a positive economic impact. In Newcastle, secondary care costs in 2019-20 were 9% lower than a matched-control group where social prescribing was not available.
6 In Rotherham, a pre and post analysis on frequent users reported a reduction in costs up to 39% for A&E attendances