Beyond Referrals: Enhancing Social Prescribing

Social prescribing has been praised as a bridge between health services and community life. But what happens when the bridge has no foundation?

Belong in Plymouth’s Core Team has been grappling with that very question. “If there’s no community group left,” said Network Connector Karen, “then there’s nowhere for link workers to send people!”

The team recognised that referrals alone can’t create connection. Without investment in the infrastructure of community groups—without warm, welcoming places and trusted people to greet you—social prescribing risks becoming a dead end.

These conversations echoed a broader concern: we can’t build a care economy without actually resourcing care. As one team member asked, “How do we move beyond the transactional? How do we support the relationships that make healing possible?”

Belong in Plymouth’s approach has been to go deeper. That means listening to the community groups that have been doing this work for decades, and asking what they need—not just to survive, but to thrive.

It also means redesigning the system to recognise care as a shared responsibility, not a bolt-on. Whether it’s mental health, loneliness, or housing insecurity, the answers aren’t tucked inside a referral form—they’re woven through relationships.

The challenge ahead is clear: if we want social prescribing to work, we need to build the local ecosystems that hold it up. That starts by recognising that care, connection, and community are not side projects—they’re the main event.