Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he will commit extra funding for social prescribing, including to support individuals to engage in nature-based interventions and activities.

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.