Social Prescribing

(asked on 31st March 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to engage social prescribing in integrated care providers.


Answered by
Maria Caulfield Portrait
Maria Caulfield
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
This question was answered on 19th April 2022

NHS England and NHS Improvement have encouraged systems to work with local agencies and partner organisations to develop shared plans to ensure engagement with and the sustainability of social prescribing in their area.

In September 2021 NHS England and Improvement published ‘Building strong integrated care systems everywhere: ICS implementation guidance on partnerships with the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector’ which outlines the importance of the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector as a strategic partner in integrated care systems (ICSs) and provides guidance on how VCSE partnerships should be embedded. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/B0905-vcse-and-ics-partnerships.pdf

The guidance states that by July 2022, integrated care boards (ICBs) are expected to have developed a formal agreement with the VCSE sector in system-level governance and decision-making arrangements, ideally through a VCSE alliance to reflect the diversity of the sector. It also describes the importance of embedding social prescribing services in ICSs.

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