Today is Social Prescribing Day which celebrates and promotes approaches to enabling health professionals to refer people to a range of local non-clinical services. Social prescribing is increasingly regarded as key to addressing the burgeoning mental health crisis in the UK and supporting stretched NHS services following the pandemic.
COVID-19 has taken its toll on the nation’s mental health. Isolation, grief and financial pressures have had a huge impact on people across the country, whilst health inequalities have widened.
An estimated 10 million people in England will need new or additional support with their mental health as a result of the pandemic- almost 20 per cent of the population.
Ill health often has social and economic exclusion at its heart, meaning solutions beyond clinical services are needed. Social prescribing can help individuals to find ways to improve their health and wellbeing by referring them to activities in their communities, such as faith groups, exercise classes, volunteering or learning.
The benefits of learning for improving mental health and wellbeing and reducing loneliness are well evidenced, often providing the learner with greater confidence and skills, increasing social integration and supporting them to secure meaningful work.
City Hall spends £320 million a year funding adult learning courses in London through the Adult Education Budget (AEB). This covers a range of courses from maths and English to vocational skills in key sectors as well as more community-based learning. There is a real opportunity to use this substantial budget to improve health outcomes for Londoners through social prescription.
New research, commissioned by City Hall and published today, maps the extent of social prescribing to adult education in London. Encouragingly the research found there is significant potential for greater collaboration between social prescribing services and adult education across the city - with the opportunity to greatly improve mental health and wellbeing.
To help with this, City Hall has published a toolkit to help social prescribers and training providers to better connect. Going forward, we will continue to look for ways to improve pathways to adult education through social prescribing and build better partnerships between health and education.