Local authority leaders have defended social prescribing after researchers argue that the practice does not ‘achieve meaningful levels’ of health and well-being changes.

Social prescribing, also referred to as community referral, is when a local agency refers someone to a non-clinical service to help address a health condition. It might involve recommending exercise or volunteering.

The Local Government Association (LGA) advocates the use of social prescribing as a way to help councils with overstretched budgets deal with people suffering from chronic illnesses.

In 2017, the LGA published a series of social prescribing case studies as a guide for local authorities.

‘Chronic illnesses consume approximately 70% of the health budget. But as there is no cure for them they require us to look beyond the traditional clinical model the NHS offers,’ the introduction to the case studies said.

‘This is where social prescribing comes in. By connecting people with local community services and activities we can improve the health and wellbeing of large numbers of people.

‘Councils – with their responsibility for public health and local leadership – are ideally placed to grasp the nettle.’

However, a new study published yesterday in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health has brought the effectiveness of such non-clinical treatments into question.

Based on data from the National Referral Database, which included information on 23, 731 participants from 13 different exercise referral schemes (ERSs), the research concluded that there were some health benefits associated with social prescribing, but these were minimal.

‘We considered whether meaningful health and well-being changes occur in people who are undergoing ERSs,’ the report’s conclusion reads.

‘These results demonstrate that, although many health and well-being outcomes improved, the changes did not achieve meaningful levels.

‘This suggests the need to consider the implementation of ERSs more critically to discern how to maximise their effectiveness.’

Defending social prescribing, Cllr Ian Hudspeth, chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, argued that ERSs remained ‘in their relative infancy on a national scale’.

‘Locally-led, targeted interventions and facilities, such as museums, libraries, leisure centres and parks, have a major role to play in helping communities to become creative and physically active,’ he said.

‘Wellbeing is complicated and hard to measure. Outcomes can differ widely from one individual to another and are unpredictable. It is important that any social prescribing activity is properly resourced to allow evaluation and research to take place.’