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Social Prescribing Information Standard

Enables social prescribing support provision to be recorded, amended and maintained collaboratively between patients, link workers and health and care professionals.

Contents

Documentation
View documentation for this standard

About this standard

Publisher
NHS England
Reference code
DAPB4066 Amd 108/2021
Publication date
16 January 2023
Status
Active
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Active. Active standards are stable, maintained and have been approved, assured or endorsed for use by qualified bodies.

Deprecated Deprecated standards are available for use and are maintained, but are being phased out, so new functionality will not be added.

Retired standards Retired standards are not being maintained or supported and should not be used.

Standard type
Information standards
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Collections. A Collection is a systematic gathering of a specified selection of data or information for a particular stated purpose from existing records held within health and care systems and electronic devices.

Extractions. An extraction is a type of collection that is pulled from an operational system by the data controller and transmitted to the receiver without additional processing or transcription by the sender.

Information standards. Information standards are agreed ways of doing something, written down as a set of precise criteria so they can be used as rules, guidelines, or definitions.

Technical Standards and specifications. Technical standards and specifications specify how to make information available technically including how the data is structured and transported.

Contact point

england.standards.assurance@nhs.net

Using this standard

The Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) were commissioned by NHS England to develop the following set of resources. These have been migrated into the NHS Standards Directory and will be managed by NHS England from 01 January 2026.

Associated medias
Applies to
  • Social prescribing services
  • General Practice
  • Acute health services
  • Mental health services
  • Community services
  • Social Care services
  • Other Service Providers MAY conform to this information standard.
  • Referrers to social prescribing services MAY conform to this standard.
Impacts on
Implementation of this information standard impacts all health IT systems suppliers providing systems to the above providers; suppliers should work with their customers to determine necessary changes.
Effective from
1 March 2023

Topics and care settings

Topic
  • Care records
  • Pharmacy, Medicines and Prescribing
  • Referrals
Care setting
  • Community health
  • Hospital
  • Mental health
  • Social care

Dependencies and related standards

Dependencies
Related standards

Review Information

Scope
NHS Services, Adult Social Care
Sponsor

Tim Straughan, Deputy Director of the Personalised Care Group, NHS England

Senior Responsible Officer

David Bramley, Deputy Director, Personalised Care Group, NHS England

Business Lead
Jules Ford, Senior Lead, Personalised Care Group, NHS England\r\nMartin Orton, Senior Programme Manager, Prpfessional Record Standards Body (PRSB)
Contributor
Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB)
Approval date
25 August 2022
Post Implementation review Date
31 March 2025
Technical Committee

Data Alliance Partnership Board (DAPB)

Legal basis

Link to Information Standards Notice (ISN)
View the information standards notice

Information Standards Notices (ISNs) are published to announce new or changes to information standards published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012

Legal authority

Section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012

This information standard is published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012

Licence information

NHS England permits the copying and re-use of Information Standards, in whole or in part, for commercial and non-commercial purposes but, to protect the integrity of the Information Standards, you are not permitted to adapt, amend or decompile the Information Standards for any purpose without our prior consent.

Licence

Crown Copyright https://digital.nhs.uk/about-nhs-digital/terms-and-conditions

More information

This is an information standard commissioned by NHS England from the Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) with the intent to establish consistency in information capture regarding social prescribing. Social prescribing helps people to stay well for longer, and is supported by the Government’s loneliness strategy, A connected society: A strategy for tackling loneliness (2018). Social prescribing in the community allows local agencies to refer individuals to link workers, who work with the individual, focusing on ‘what matters to me’ and connecting them with local groups and services. The NHS Long Term Plan commits that personalised care will become “business as usual” for the NHS and for 2.5 million people to benefit by 2023/24. ‘Social prescribing and community based support’ is one of the six components which make up this model and NHS England’s Comprehensive Model of Universal Personalised Care details how this will be achieved, with a target of over 900,000 people being referred to social prescribing schemes by 2023/24. The first version of this information standard is to mandate the use of the PRSB Social Prescribing standard (version 1.0) in appropriate care settings, to achieve consistency of information capture relating to social prescribing activities. This will prepare care providers to be able to share relevant information which will be facilitated through a future version of this standard.

Scope

The standard is for all models of social prescribing including those used in local authorities and voluntary organisations in social care or health. The standard has three parts:

  • The referral to social prescribing (unless it’s a self-referral)
  • The link worker’s record
  • The message back to the GP and referrer (if different)
Out of scope:
  • Social prescribing for children and young people. Their particular needs have not been addressed, but it may work or be usable with supplementary information where required.
  • Information requirements of any local services the person is referred or signposted to, although where appropriate, they would receive a referral from the link worker.

Page last updated: 18 December 2025