Multi-region evaluation of the national roll out of link workers
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Multi-region (and multi-level) evaluation of the roll out of social prescribing link workers in primary care
IRAS ID
314870
Contact name
Paul Wilson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Link worker models of social prescribing are being introduced across the NHS. The role is to help patients find information, advice and other services from local, voluntary and community groups with the aim of improving their health and wellbeing.
This study aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of the implementation, delivery and impact of link worker services to inform future policy. We plan to take a multi-regional mixed methods approach to map current provision and to assess whether access, engagement and outcomes vary by delivery model, geography and population characteristics over time.
We will examine routine data from social prescribing services and other sources to see who is referred, for what reasons, and whether people take up the support offered. Using these data, we will look at the ways people are invited to meet link workers, identify gaps in access and participation, as well as any variation in people’s health and wellbeing outcomes.
We will talk with service users, link workers and providers of community services about how social prescribing services are accessed so that we can understand the role of the link worker, how activities are planned and followed up. We will listen to the different views of people from diverse cultural backgrounds and to GPs, link workers, and community organisations about their experiences of using and providing social prescribing services.
Finally, we will look at the economic sustainability of link worker services. The development of any system that encourages people to access community services needs to have the capacity to meet those extra access needs. We will use data collected by the services and data that we have collected to find out which resources will bring most benefit to the NHS in the long term.
REC name
North East - York Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/NE/0176
Date of REC Opinion
26 Sep 2023
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion