What are the gains from social prescribing?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
What are the gains from social prescribing?
IRAS ID
350615
Contact name
Paul McNamee
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Aberdeen
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
NIHR150995, NIHR Aberdeen Health Determinants Research Collaboration
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Social prescribing is a system whereby healthcare professionals can refer patients to non-clinical services, usually delivered in a community. The referral process usually happens through a link worker who assesses a participant's needs and recommends relevant services.
The social prescribing scheme in Aberdeen has been in place since 2018. An evaluation conducted in 2019 suggested positive impacts on participants health and wellbeing. Recent discussion with commissioners at the Aberdeen City Health & Social Care Partnership (NHS Grampian and Aberdeen City Council, working in partnership) and providers (Scottish Action for Mental Health (SAMH)) established an opportunity for further research to address local priorities and current evidence gaps. There is a need for evidence on the longer-term impacts for participants, cost effectiveness of the programme, and mechanisms of change (if social prescribing is found to have an impact on health and wellbeing, why and how this happens).
This research is a PhD project aiming to add to the evidence on the impact of social prescribing by considering 3 research questions:
1. What are the health and wellbeing impacts of the Aberdeen social prescribing programme on participants?
2. What are the impacts of the Aberdeen social prescribing programme on healthcare resource use?
3. What are the mechanisms that effect the impact of the social prescribing?To answer these questions, we plan to use information about recipients of the Aberdeen social prescribing programme on the following:
• Evidence on the impact the programme has had on their health and wellbeing, collected via recipient survey.
• Routinely collected data on recipients’ healthcare resource use to consider if social prescribing impacts the use of other healthcare services.
• Data on recipients socio-demographic characteristics to consider if different groups experience different outcomes from the service.
• Evidence from interviews on how social prescribing impacts recipients’ daily lives.REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/NW/0031
Date of REC Opinion
9 Feb 2026
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion