Effects of Social Prescribing on health and healthcare utilisation of people with type 2 diabetes in North East England: the SPRING_NE Study

Social prescribing is an intervention that enables health professionals, mainly those in primary care, to refer patients to a link worker who will spend time with them to identify goals and services within the locality that can assist them deal with their health problems whilst taking account of other non-health factors influencing their health.

There are different social prescribing service models. Currently, NHS England is planning to train more than 1000 social prescribing link workers, with a target of over 900,000 referrals by 2023/24 see NHS Long Term Plan. Link workers funded in this way will be employed by primary care networks.

Our evaluation will be of a particular model of social prescribing called Ways to Wellness and focuses on people with type 2 diabetes. 

For futher information on the intervention and the work packages associated with this study please click on the tabs on the left.