How to use data to make the case for investment and expansion
1. Using the existing evidence base
There is a wealth of existing evidence that shows the positive impacts social prescribing has had on people, communities and the healthcare system. This could help you build the case to decision makers to invest in social prescribing or set up the infrastructure to measure the impact locally.
The National Academy of Social Prescribing have developed robust reviews of the existing research and evidence for social prescribing across different domains.
This includes reviews on:
The impact of social prescribing on health care service use and costs and costs, which across nine systems found evidence of:
- reduced GP appointments
- reduced hospital admissions
- reduced A&E visits
The economic impact of social prescribing, which found that:
- Social prescribing can save money and findings from studies using five different methods show that social prescribing can have a positive economic impact
- Studies suggest that social prescribing schemes can deliver between £2.14 and £8.56 in social and economic value for every £1 invested
- Social prescribing can reduce pressure on the NHS, this includes reduced GP appointments, reduced hospital admissions and reduced A&E visits for people who have been referred to social prescribing services
Elemental and University College London have also created a guide around the impact of social prescribing. It analysed over 200,000 cases across the UK to identify the impact of social prescribing. The guide highlights:
- Key findings such as “Together experienced a 65% GP attendance reduction after investing in Access Elemental.”
- What primary care networks can do to make the most of social prescribing
- How digital tools can support the impact of social prescribing
2. Thinking about your audience and purpose
It’s helpful to think about the audience for the evaluation.
- Who are you trying to influence?
- What do you want them to do as a result?
- What matters to that person?
This could be the current funder of the service, a potential funder, an employer or someone else. An example is below:
| Questions | Answers |
|---|---|
| Who are you trying to influence? | The PCN clinical director GP partners at the practice |
| What do you want them to do as a result? | Agree to expand the number of social prescribing link workers from two to three in your PCN |
| What matters to that person? | Social prescribing supporting the priority clinical conditions for the PCN Social prescribing reducing GP workload Social prescribing supporting high intensity users and preventing GP appointments Social prescribing supporting with issues GPs can’t |
Funding for social prescribing services comes from a range of places. The majority is through primary care workforce funding, which to date has been through the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRs). However local authorities, Public Health England and National Lottery also fund social prescribing services. Less common are funded services through charities, academic institutions and government departments, but do exist in some areas. (Social Prescribing Network, 2016).
Employers of social prescribing link workers are an equally diverse group. Often charities are commissioned by the NHS to deliver services such as Age UK or local organisations e.g. Public Voice in Haringey. These organisations often deliver other connector type services that complement social prescribing and have good relationships with smaller charities who offer activities. Evaluation could consider how these services are used individually and together.
3. Business cases
A business case is a justification for a decision, which often carries monetary investment. This could be around a project starting or continuing, workforce changes such as recruitment or pay rise. A guide to business cases and workshop can be found here.
Example: Ealing used Joy to show demands for services, demonstrating a gap in housing support services. This led to a re-commissioning of the Housing association support services in Ealing from the Local Authority.
4. Visualising and presenting data
This website can guide you on how to visualise data and what charts are best for what type of data. How you present data can make a huge impact of how it is understood.
You may utilise analysis and visualisation skills from within an ICB such as from a business analyst or commission an external organisation.
For example NEL ICB, worked with Bearing Point to support development of their dashboard, in partnership with ICB business analysts. See a detailed case study for this project here.
For example, in Merton, they work with their ICB business analyst teams to extract social prescribing data and use it in the SWL dashboards. An example of their report is here. Previously they used an external team within the NEL CSU to support with data extraction, linkage and analysis.
