In 2024, researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol, Manchester and Newcastle upon Tyne interviewed patients, healthcare workers and community link workers (CLWs) in Scotland and their equivalent social prescribing link workers in England.
These interviews were part of a National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded project, led by the University of Manchester, into the impact of social prescribing link workers across the UK. Roisin Hurst, Project Manager of the Scottish Community Link Worker Network (SCLWN) was a member of the research advisory group. Community link workers and Programme Leads from SCLWN were intereviewed as part of the study.
The findings have just been published in a paper: Embedding social prescribing in primary care in England and Scotland: a qualitative study of experiences, roles, challenges, and sustainability.
The researchers found that community link workers were seeing many more patients with highly complex needs than they did previously – and that they were managing to build empathic relationships because of their own backgrounds, training, and support.
The team concluded that CLWs were not only helping patients to build confidence and increase their independence but, where CLWs were working as part of primary care teams, they were also “reducing moral distress and possibly reducing workload” for general practitioners.
Roisin Hurst, Project Manager for the Scottish Community Link Worker Network, commented, ‘This research showcases how vital community link workers are within both primary care and their local communities and backs up what many of our Network’s members have been saying about the complexity of their work. We welcome the Scottish Government’s current review into community link working in Scotland and look forward to a future where community link workers benefit from long-term, sustainable funding for their roles.’
