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More than 900 South Ribble residents have been supported by a new service designed to improve health and wellbeing in the year since it launched.
The council-run initiative – using a model known as ‘social prescribing’ – sees individuals referred to organisations that can help them with a raft of non-medical problems which can nevertheless have an impact on their mental and physical wellness.
Of the 939 people who have so far completed a programme of support in the borough, 96 percent reported an increase in their overall wellbeing and 73 percent said they were now less lonely.
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It is also estimated that the scheme has saved the public purse between £3.9m and £5.5m as a result of resolving or lessening the impact of social, practical and emotional issues – often inter-related – that could otherwise have later required another form of state intervention.
The most common reason for a person needing support during the first year of the service in South Ribble was the cost-of-living crisis; others included general wellbeing issues and isolation.
Social prescribing has become widespread in the NHS over the past five years, with individuals being referred to community, voluntary or faith sector groups to help with problems that do not require a medical response. South Ribble Borough Council established its own version of that model 12 months ago, based upon principles established during its initial response to the pandemic – and has now delivered almost 6,000 hours worth of help.
It has proved so popular – with referrals being made by residents themselves, council departments or third party organisations – that there is currently a near two-month wait for a first appointment after an initial assessment which usually takes place within a fortnight.
The service has been closely intertwined with the Household Support Fund – a government cash pot allocated to local councils to enable them to provide discretionary help with cost-of-living challenges. A third of those who have had social prescribing support also received grants worth £83,000 to cover the cost of essentials.
Deputy council leader Aniela Bylinksi Gelder told a cabinet meeting at which a report assessing the first year of the scheme was presented that “hundreds of people have been able to be helped that hadn’t previously”.
MIddleforth ward councillor Keith Martin said the true impact of social prescribing would ripple out far beyond those individuals reflected in the official statistics.
“It’s understated…[how the problems of] one person can affect the whole family. It’s just unbelievable what happens to people when they are in the doldrums,” he added..
The service initially had a £240,000 budget to run for two years, using cash from a government Covid recovery grant. Other available funding – including from the council’s share of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund – means it could operate for a third year before a decision has to be taken about its longer-term future.
Cabinet papers noted that any future withdrawal of the service would likely have “unseen negative impacts for those individuals who would be unable to access support”.
However, an extension of the scheme would “need to be balanced against any wider social value…that the service is able to demonstrate”., members were told.
‘I don’t know where I’d be if you hadn’t helped me’
South Ribble’s social prescribing service offers three levels of support – basic ‘signposting’ to point people in the direction of organisations that can offer help; more targeted support which sees the the social prescriber arrange a referral to such groups and agree a plan for what the person hopes to get out of the process; and a more “holistic” service.
The latter – received by 43 percent of people who have passed through the system so far – involves social prescribers providing one-to-one support to achieve set objectives and actually attending other services and activities with them, in order to build their “resilience and confidence”.
Feedback from several recipients of social prescribing in the borough, quoted in the report, includes the reflections of one man with debt and related alcohol problems who said: “I have no idea where I would be today without all your help, I don’t like to think about how bad things would have [become] if you didn’t come along.”
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