What steps his Department is taking to support social prescribing.

I am sure that the hon. Lady welcomes the £3 million that we are granting to the National Academy for Social Prescribing. Social prescribing needs to be commissioned locally by integrated care boards, and I am confident that as and when it delivers valuable services, those services will continue to be commissioned by ICBs.

I agree that social prescribers do a fantastic job. I recently met members of Veterans Outdoors near Totnes, and visited the Vounder Therapy Garden at the Eden Project through the parliamentary knowledge schemes. Those organisations are doing incredible work, turning lives around, particularly for those with mental health challenges, but their projects receive absolutely no funding, although the National Academy for Social Prescribing has identified a return of up to £8.56 for every £1 invested. How does the Department expect them to survive and broaden their reach without funding? Given their cost-effectiveness, will the Government commit themselves not just to funding the link worker and the social prescriber, but to encouraging integrated care boards to fund those amazing projects?

We are absolutely committed to electronic prescribing. I think my hon. Friend is referring in particular to pharmacy services. We are launching new initiatives in respect of the shift from analogue to digital, and I should be happy to meet him to discuss the details of his question a little further.

To provide treatment for alcohol and drug dependency, charities such as Change Grow Live need to use the NHS electronic prescription service, which has been unavailable to them until recently. The Government have agreed to allow access, but have provided no timetable. Will the Minister provide one today?

The social prescribing service is a vital part of the shift from hospital to community, and from sickness to prevention. We are funding social prescribing link workers in primary care to connect patients with preventive community support, and we are granting £3 million to the National Academy for Social Prescribing to support staff training and local infrastructure. Social prescribing will also be at the heart of our neighbourhood health service, so that community-led care can really transform lives.

The Government is committed to taking a preventive approach to improve health and address health inequalities. We are determined to improve people’s physical and mental health to support them to live longer and healthier lives, and we recognise the role that social prescribing can play in this.

The 10 Year Workforce Plan will put the National Health Service workforce on a sustainable footing so it can deliver the service model set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, including the shift to prevention which is central to our vision for neighbourhood health.

The plan will set out a sustainable approach to workforce planning, one which is responsive and agile to changes in how we deliver care and prevent ill-health, supporting the workforce and growing it where needed to deliver better prevention, better care, and better outcomes.

DCMS officials have had discussions with DHSC on the value of arts and culture to public health and wellbeing. DCMS also routinely meets with its arms-length body, Arts Council England (ACE), on their work to support people’s health, happiness and wellbeing via access to high-quality cultural and creative activities.

Research commissioned by DCMS' Culture and Heritage Capital Programme found that general engagement with culture and heritage positively impacts physical health, mental health, and productivity, which for adults, is valued at £18.6bn per year. For adults aged 65 years and over who attend a choir weekly, there is an estimated benefit on a society-wide level of £170m.

Adults over 50 years old who engage with cultural venues have delayed dementia onset, resulting in social care and NHS savings of £0.38bn.

The government supports the arts sector, including choirs and singing through ACE. For the 2024/25 financial year, ACE allocated £1.83 million in National Lottery Project Grants to projects classified under 'Choral’.

Within ACE’s National Portfolio Investment Programme, 334 organisations provide “creative health” programming. To support this work, the Arts Council provides an annual investment of £145 million to National Portfolio Organisations whose activities incorporate creative health.

ACE has also co-funded the National Academy of Social Proscribing (NASP) to deliver the Power of Music programme, which aims to transform how music supports dementia care within NHS systems.

Regarding the potential role of an extended Orchestra Tax Relief, fiscal policy and the design of tax reliefs are the remit of His Majesty’s Treasury.

No specific assessment has been made of the potential impact of social prescribing for supporting mental health and wellbeing in men.

The Department recognises the value of social prescribing for men. The Men’s Health Strategy, launched on 19 November 2025, includes partnerships with sports organisations to support mental health and social connection.

The Department has commissioned national research into different workstreams for social prescribing. This includes evaluation of the impact of activities such as nature-based interventions for people with mental ill-health.

In Stroud, we have secured £90,000 in funding for a scheme that places employment social prescribers and occupational therapists into GP practices. They support people who are out of work and in receipt of benefits to return to employment, improving their health and reducing their reliance on welfare. Will the Minister consider rolling out that model nationally, recognising that work is often the best cure for sickness?

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for the meeting that we had on this very subject just a few months ago and for raising the issue of how important it is to get people back into work. There are lots of good examples of GPs who are doing that around the country, and I look forward to seeing what more we can do to work with him and other GPs to ensure that we get as many people as possible back into work who are not in work at the moment due to ill health.

The Government has underlined its commitment to taking a preventive approach to address health inequalities.  We are determined to improve people’s physical and mental health to support them to live longer and healthier lives and we recognise the role that social prescribing can play in this.

The Department funds social prescribing link workers in primary care through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme.  In March 2025, the Department agreed a further year of grant funding for the National Academy for Social Prescribing, securing £1.5 million to advance and expand social prescribing.  Future funding allocations have yet to be confirmed.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs leads on green social prescribing and, together with Natural England, has recently invested £300,000 to track the uptake and impact of green social prescribing using primary care data. The evidence will inform future policy for the spread and scale of nature-based health interventions.

The Government recognises the health and wellbeing benefits of outdoor access and will continue to champion these benefits, which the Green Social Prescribing programme has evidenced.

Phase 1 of the Green Social Prescribing programme ran until March 2023 and was very successful, achieving around 8,500 referrals and demonstrating statistically significant improvements in participants mental health.

As in the first phase of the programme, there will be an evaluation report developed for Phase 2 of the programme, which ran from April 2024 until March 2025. We expect to publish the phase 2 report in early 2026.

The Government has underlined its commitment to taking a preventive approach to address health inequalities. We are determined to improve people’s physical and mental health, to support them to live longer and healthier lives, and we recognise the role that social prescribing can play in this.  The Department funds the workforce through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, including social prescribing link workers in primary care. In March 2025, the Department agreed to a further year of grant funding for the National Academy for Social Prescribing, securing £1.5 million to advance and expand social prescribing.

The Health Mission specifically cites social prescribing as one of the services that can form part of the multi-disciplinary teams in neighbourhood health centres. The Neighbourhood Health Service has six initial core components, and social prescribing directly relates to both population health management and neighbourhood multidisciplinary teams.

We will soon launch the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme, which will support systems across the country to test new ways of working, share learning, and scale what works, making neighbourhood health the norm, not the exception.

The Department has commissioned national research into different workstreams for social prescribing.

The Government has underlined its commitment to taking a preventive approach to address health inequalities. We are determined to improve people’s physical and mental health, to support them to live longer and healthier lives, and we recognise the role that social prescribing can play in this.  The Department funds the workforce through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, including social prescribing link workers in primary care. In March 2025, the Department agreed to a further year of grant funding for the National Academy for Social Prescribing, securing £1.5 million to advance and expand social prescribing.

The Health Mission specifically cites social prescribing as one of the services that can form part of the multi-disciplinary teams in neighbourhood health centres. The Neighbourhood Health Service has six initial core components, and social prescribing directly relates to both population health management and neighbourhood multidisciplinary teams.

We will soon launch the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme, which will support systems across the country to test new ways of working, share learning, and scale what works, making neighbourhood health the norm, not the exception.

The Department has commissioned national research into different workstreams for social prescribing.

The Government has underlined its commitment to taking a preventive approach to address health inequalities. We are determined to improve people’s physical and mental health, to support them to live longer and healthier lives, and we recognise the role that social prescribing can play in this.  The Department funds the workforce through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, including social prescribing link workers in primary care. In March 2025, the Department agreed to a further year of grant funding for the National Academy for Social Prescribing, securing £1.5 million to advance and expand social prescribing.

The Health Mission specifically cites social prescribing as one of the services that can form part of the multi-disciplinary teams in neighbourhood health centres. The Neighbourhood Health Service has six initial core components, and social prescribing directly relates to both population health management and neighbourhood multidisciplinary teams.

We will soon launch the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme, which will support systems across the country to test new ways of working, share learning, and scale what works, making neighbourhood health the norm, not the exception.

The Department has commissioned national research into different workstreams for social prescribing.

The Department recognises the value that social prescribing can play in supporting people’s health and wellbeing. This includes activities such as the creative arts, as well as cultural activities.