Blog

Fresh off the back of the 1st International Social Prescribing Network Research Conference in Salford, we’ve pulled together some of the key takeaways from the event.

Organised by Dr Marie Polley and Craig Lister and supported by The University of Salford, TCV, the University of Westminster and the Mayor of London, the inaugural conference aimed to bring the growing social prescribing research community together in one place for the first time, in order to identify priority research areas and develop the evidence base with a common research framework exploring the efficacy of non-clinical community interventions.

The evening before the conference saw the Social Prescribing Hour contributors and Social Prescribing Network come together for the first time, meeting in person after discussing key themes and topics online each week. As you can imagine, there was lots of chat and great anticipation for the day ahead…and even some dancing in the lift.

The event was kicked started by co chair of the Social Prescribing Network, Dr Marie Polley, followed by a keynote address from Dr William Bird and a plenary session chaired by Helen Chatterjee, setting the overview of critical reflection and research data.

Lunchtime was spent reading the abstract posters set up around the conference hall and networking.

The conference also involved an interactive session, with the opportunity to respond to questions arising from the discussions via a website which generated word maps. It drew out the key questions, concerns and observations from the conference -funding, impact, sustainability and measurement tools being the key themes.

This was a conference with a difference! It really felt like we were one big social prescribing family, passionate about connecting communities and supporting people to access support through social prescribing. We’d like to thank the conference organising team and leave you with our key takeaways:

1. By working together we are building the case – showing what’s working and how it’s working
2. We need to have the hard data and the softer data – we need to measure what is meaningful to many different stakeholders
3. Social prescribing will not work without a healthy and properly resourced ecosystem of local charities and VCSEs
4. Increasing social prescribing should move to a social movement through digital platforms and insight
5. Social prescribing provides pathways to existing voluntary and community assets but also builds new assets

We are also delighted that Elemental has been announced as the Digital Supporter for the Kings Fund Social Prescribing: Coming of Age Conference, on November 6th. Click here to book.