Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress his Department has made on the commitment in the loneliness strategy to undertake work to assess how a variety of organisations and services currently refer individuals into social prescribing schemes and local provision.

The Government’s Loneliness Strategy ‘A connected society: A Strategy for tackling loneliness – laying the foundations for change,’ acknowledged that tackling loneliness is complex and a long-term challenge, requiring action across many fronts and working with local government, public services, the voluntary and community sector and businesses to identify opportunities to tackle loneliness and build more integrated communities.

Discussions are underway with a range of public sector organisations such as job centres, local authorities, Public Health England and National Health Service agencies to identify what more can be done to improve how they better refer into social prescribing services and provision.

In addition, social workers play a key role in referring people into community services and the co-chair of the Principal Social Worker network sits on the National Social Prescribing network to promote their work and share learning.

The Department expects to report on the outcome of this commitment in late autumn.