The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is a growing concern amongst policymakers and practitioners, with recent data from the World Health Organisation suggesting that one in seven young people globally aged 10-19 years, experience a diagnosable mental health condition. In this article, Ruth Farrimond-Goff and Professor Caroline Bond examine the implications of embedding social prescribing within the education sector.

• Social prescribing can support adults to address social and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing – but it is not yet commonly deployed for children and young people.
• Researchers from The University of Manchester reviewed a pilot scheme which prioritised children and young people’s social prescribing.
• This approach to wellbeing for young people has policy potential to enhance government plans for mental health support. Link workers should be integrated into schools and colleges as a key element of mental health provision.

Social prescribing – purpose and approach

The purpose of social prescribing is to support individuals without medication, instead offering a ‘social prescription’. This is done by providing a link worker or community navigator to prescribe a social/community-based care package.

Link workers can help a young person to consider their strengths and interests, identify an appropriate activity and then support them to connect with it. They meet one to one with a young person and become a trusted adult who listens and hears their story and provides support in a non-judgemental way. Understanding around the utility and effectiveness of social prescribing for young people is in its infancy although recent research highlighted that the emerging evidence is positive.

Research at The University of Manchester – a pilot project

A pilot project was undertaken in a large Combined Authority (CA) in the north-west of England.

This CA had prioritised children and young people’s social prescribing as part of a community and person-centred approach to addressing the health and wellbeing needs of children and young people. Three colleges were involved in the process. A social prescribing project coordinator and regional social prescribing programme manager were overseeing the pilot, and they ran a regular delivery support meeting for the colleges.

Reviewing social prescribing

The aim of this study was to review the role of social prescribing and how it was being undertaken with young people in colleges as well as evaluating the project. We wanted to know if social prescribing is a beneficial alternative method and preventative mechanism, for boosting young peoples’ mental health and wellbeing through engagement with activities. We also wanted to assess how it is working with on-site link workers in relation to supporting college aged young peoples’ mental health.

Three large further education colleges from different areas of the north-west were involved, two of which served deprived neighbourhoods. They were in either urban or semi-rural locations and two delivered academic and applied courses whilst the other focused more on vocational courses.

The study investigated stakeholders’ experiences of taking part in the pilot using an in-depth exploratory survey design. Perspectives were gained through participants being involved in a focus group (three college staff) and individual semi-structured interviews (six students, link worker, social prescribing coordinator and programme manager).

Key findings – a clear need for social prescribing

From our findings it was evident that the need for social prescribing was there, with many young people struggling with anxiety, stress, loneliness, low mood, lack of confidence, absenteeism and low self-esteem, along with having difficulties in managing the transition from high school and not knowing how to support themselves. They wanted their mental health, wellbeing and social interactions to improve.

We found that the link worker role was pivotal to the success of the project. The students talked about the link workers being a ‘listening ear’ and supportive, as well as providing advice and guidance.

Implications for policy

A significant finding of this work was that the ‘champion’ link worker is vital and having link workers based in colleges or educational settings is a positive way forward.

The government have identified in their “Break down barriers to opportunity” mission, that poor mental health is a barrier to learning. They have pledged to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, so every young person has access to early support “to address problems before they escalate”. We recommend that social prescribing link workers be integrated into this strategy and are a key part of the workforce of school mental health professionals.

Barnardo’s has called for universal mental health support in schools through “a national strategy for social prescribing for children and young people”.  Our research supports this call.

‘Social Prescribing’ has been identified in the NHS Long Term Plan as becoming a universal service covering all age groups, thus implying that this mainly adult focussed intervention would be available to under 18s. The plan also confirmed that improvements over the next ten years would include increasing funding for children and young people’s mental health, and support would be embedded in schools and colleges.

Logistical factors were raised as an important consideration for the continuation of college based social prescribing programmes, with the need for greater clarity on identification, coordination, and a wider range of signposting opportunities to improve engagement, being some of those mentioned. Cross department working between the Department for Education and Department for Health and Social Care will be crucial to overcoming these logistical challenges.

Our study identified numerous facilitators and barriers. The key facilitator was having a dedicated in-house link worker with the main barriers being a lack of budget, time and community access. As government have undertaken to provide mental health support in schools and introduce a network of ‘Young Futures hubs’, we advocate for a national social prescribing strategy to be integrated into the development of and budget for these plans.

Finally, we found that listening to young people and being aware of student choice is important when considering the range of activities on offer when delivering social prescribing. Education policymakers developing strategies and interventions should ensure that there are ample consultation opportunities so that the views of young people, educators and mental health professionals can be taken into account.