News and views

The Impact of COVID-19 on social prescribing link workers’ experiences in primary care – key messages from an evaluation in the southwest of England.

In this blog, researcher, Debra Westlake, reflects on a previous evaluation she conducted between 2020 and 2021 with a team at the University of Plymouth, investigated the impact of COVID-19 on social prescribing in the southwest of England.

The Link Worker Project - Reflections from a PPI Contributor

PPI contributor, Bernard, reflects on the role of link workers, having been involved in one of our core Social Prescribing projects, seeking to better understand implementation of link workers in primary care.

Street-level bureaucrats: Ideas from Lipsky applied to the role of social prescribing link workers

In this blog, Stephanie Tierney, Senior Researcher and Departmental Lecturer, Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, University of Oxford, shares details of the latest study that aims to explore and explain the link worker role in primary care, and highlights the concept of 'Street-Level Bureaucracy', proposed by Michael Lipsky to better understand this role.

Real world encounters with social prescribing: Reflections from fieldwork on a study to understand the link worker role

Observing the social prescribing link worker role: reflections from the front line

Researcher, Debra Westlake, reflects on the first stages of data collection from latest social prescribing study; exploring and comparing the roles of links workers at various GP surgeries throughout the UK, in sustaining outcomes in primary care.