Improving Activity-Based Social Prescribing
- Improving Health and Social Care
- Public Health
- Social Care
Social prescribing allows healthcare professionals to refer patients to non-clinical services—such as art classes, exercise groups, and gardening clubs—to improve mental and social wellbeing. While physical activity-based interventions are often recommended, their effectiveness and patient adherence remain unclear.
This study aimed to review existing research on physical activity in social prescribing, with a focus on the roles of social prescribing link workers and health coaches in supporting participation. By identifying gaps in current knowledge, the findings provide insights for healthcare providers, policymakers, and social prescribing services.
This project forms the first phase of a DPhil, with future work planned to analyse GP records to explore social prescribing uptake and adherence patterns.
This project is part of a bigger effort to improve health behaviours and outcomes through better social prescribing practices.
Impact and Implementation
This study highlights barriers to engagement in social prescribing and the need for improved strategies to support participation. The findings will contribute to future work aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of social prescribing services in primary care.
Further work is needed to carry out the next steps for optimising social prescribing, which includes plans to make use of GP databases to look at levels of social prescribing and how to improve patients uptake of social prescribing initiatives.
Next Steps
- Additional research including GP record analysis.
- Develop strategies to improve social prescribing adherence, particularly for activity-based interventions.
- Engage with link workers, health coaches, and policymakers to inform best practices.
Project lead / contact: Christopher Banks-Pillar — Oxford Social Prescribing Research Network
ARC theme: Community Health and Social Care Improvement
Completed Project
Key Findings
- Gaps in adherence: Many patients struggle to maintain engagement with activity-based social prescribing interventions.
- Uncertainty around the role of link workers: There is limited understanding of how link workers and health coaches support patient participation in social prescribing activities.
- Need for further research: More evidence is required to determine how best to optimise referral pathways and long-term adherence.
ARC OxTV Associated Project
Associated projects are projects which the ARC has helped support in some way, but does not itself directly fund or run.
Who we worked with
Peninsula Medical School (Faculty of Health), University of Plymouth