Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to promote to health professionals the Reading Well social prescribing scheme available free from public libraries as part of a Government-funded covid-19 recovery initiative.

Social prescribing link workers (SPLWs) can connect those who are referred to them by health professionals to community groups and agencies for practical, social and emotional support, such as libraries and the Reading Well initiative. SPLWs work closely with local partners across health, local authorities, the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, communities and other partners to identify and nurture community assets, such as local libraries and to raise awareness of the range of support available, such as the Reading Well resources.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with the Reading Agency to share their resources and the role of local libraries via its social prescribing bulletin, its collaborative platform and via regional networks and will continue to work with Reading Well to share its resources, including via the new cross Government green social prescribing programme. The National Academy of Social Prescribing has promoted the Reading Well programme via a blog post and via their Thriving Communities programme.