A review of the evidence assessing impact of social prescribing on healthcare demand and cost implications

This research paper reviews the existing evidence assessing impact of social prescribing on healthcare demand and cost implications. It concludes that the evidence for social prescribing is broadly supportive of its potential to reduce demand on primary and secondary care. The quality of that evidence is weak, however, and without further evaluation, it would be premature to conclude that a proof of concept for demand reduction had been established. Similarly, the evidence that social prescribing delivers cost savings to the health service over and above operating costs is encouraging but by no means proven or fully quantified.