The Social Prescribing Youth Network – a free network for anyone interested in social prescribing for children and young people – has developed a new policy brief on “Embedding and Sustaining Child and Youth Social Prescribing”.
You can find a blog with more information here; and an event on Thursday 16 October, 12–1pm will include further discussion of the findings – you can register here.
The briefing outlines learning from a recent roundtable with national policymakers and commissioners. Key takeaways include:
- At present there is variable commitment to social prescribing across healthcare and the community, with opportunities for greater collaboration.
- Examples of fantastic clinical leadership exist but there is scope for more, particularly for more involvement of national politicians alongside children and young people.
- Understanding of child, youth and family social prescribing is growing, but the sector’s skills and capabilities could be enhanced through collaboration, peer support and training.
- Presently, the resource is insufficient and unsustainable, but this could be improved with designated funding streams.
- There is promising emerging evidence, however we need to invest further in gathering high quality data and individual stories to build the case for child and youth social prescribing.
- There are varied models of social prescribing being implemented in response to the local context; these could be better embedded in national health policy.