ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2025
Impact of the rollout of the national social prescribing link worker programme on population outcomes: evidence from a repeated cross-sectional survey.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Social prescribing for children and young people in the UK: characterising access and care pathways using electronic health records.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Changes in healthcare use and cost associated with referrals to social prescribing link workers in England: a matched case-control cohort study.EClinicalMedicine · 2026Article
- Using electronic health records to evaluate a children and young people's social prescribing service: challenges and implications for research and practice.BMJ mental health · 2026Article
- Is social prescribing feasible in Türkiye? Young family doctors' perspectives: a focus group study.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- Social prescribing for refugee populations: a rapid realist review of international evidence.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- A taxonomy of children and young people's social prescribing models: a multi-site implementation case study in England.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Inequalities in referrals to social prescribing from primary care in England: A retrospective observational study.PloS one · 2026Observational
- Barriers and facilitators to implementing social prescribing in child and adolescent mental health services: a qualitative analysis using the consolidated framework for implementation research.Frontiers in health services · 2026Article
- Article
- Improving understanding of social prescribing by potential referrers.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSocial prescribing link workers have been rolled out nationally through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme. Link workers connect people to advice and support to address the non-medical and social issues affecting their health and wellbeing.
aimTo determine whether the rollout of social prescribing link workers through primary care networks improved population outcomes. DESIGN AND
settingRepeated cross-sectional survey of General Practice Patient Survey (GPPS; 2018 to 2023) data combined with administrative workforce data.
methodLogistic regression models were used to relate the number of full-time equivalent social prescribing link workers per 50 000 patients to five population outcomes.
resultsIn total, data from 4 132 676 responders from repeated cross-sections of the GPPS were used. An additional full-time equivalent link worker per 50 000 patients was associated with higher probabilities of responders with long-term conditions having confidence in managing long-term condition(s) (odds ratio [OR] 1.006, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.001 to 1.010) and having enough support from local services (OR 1.005, 95% CI = 1.001 to 1.008). For all responders, the same size increase in link workers was associated with a higher probability of having a good experience at their general practice (OR 1.015, 95% CI = 1.004 to 1.027). For responders with mental health needs, this increase in link workers was associated with a higher probability of having their mental health needs understood (OR 1.012, 95% CI = 1.003 to 1.021).
conclusionThe rollout of link workers was associated with small improvements in patient experience and slightly better outcomes for population groups specifically targeted for social prescribing. Future work is required to determine whether the scheme is financially sustainable and to ensure it does not widen existing health inequalities.
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