Decision details

Cabinet NOTED the comments made by Councillor Ketan Sheth (as Chair of the Community & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee and Social Prescribing Task Group) in introducing the report and recommendations made by the Scrutiny Task Group to review social prescribing in Brent.

In outlining the background to social prescribing, Councillor Ketan Sheth explained that the 2019 NHS long-term plan had incorporated social prescribing into its comprehensive model of personalised care. Cabinet was informed that social prescribing aimed to tackle health inequalities, which had recently been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis, through the referral of patients to a range of local, non-medical services in the community. These non-medical services sought to address the patient’s wider issues that could be contributing to their poor overall health, such as welfare issues or poor-quality housing.

Councillor Ketan Sheth summarised the Task Group’s work, which had commenced in September 2022and included evidence gathered from a range of key partners.  As a result of the evidence gathered the Task Group had been able to identify a range of opportunities to widen the scope of social prescribing from NHS primary care settings, culminating in the Task Group producing five recommendations. The Task Group’s recommendations, set out in paragraph 3.3 of the report, were supported by Sir Michael Marmot, professor at University College London and James Sanderson, the National Clinical Director for social prescribing at NHS England.

In commending the Task Group report and recommendations to Cabinet, Councillor Ketan Sheth advised that he had been encouraged by the Executive response provided by the Brent Integrated Care Partnership (ICP), giving him confidence that the Council’s ambitions were shared across Brent’s healthcare landscape.

In responding to the Task Group report, Councillor Nerva thanked Councillor Ketan Sheth (as Chair) and the Task Group for their work on the review. In welcoming the Executive response provided by the ICP he felt this served to highlight not only the opportunities for the Council to improve the scope for the development and delivery of social prescribing arrangements across the borough, working in partnership with the ICP and key health providers, but also the challenges particularly in relation to the transparency and equity of funding available through Primary Care Networks. As part of the process in taking forward the recommendations, members welcomed the specific establishment of a Social Prescribing Working Group as a means of co-ordinating work across partners and seeking to share best practice, with the benefits of a joined up approach between public health and culture also highlighted.

Having welcomed the report and Executive response provided and thanked all members, officers, and stakeholders who had contributed to the scrutiny review, Cabinet RESOLVED to endorse the Task Group’s recommendations, as set out in paragraph 3.3 of the report, and the response to them provided by the Brent Integrated Care Partnership, as set out in Appendix 2 of the report.