Select committee: Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 12
First Report - Prevention in health and social care: healthy places
Published 19 Jan 2024
Paragraph 48
Addressed to Department of Health and Social Care
Health and Social Care Committee Prevention in health and social care All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We recommend DHSC work with NHS England and existing networks and providers to develop a national strategy for social prescribing. This should aim to improve understanding amongst frontline clinical practitioners of the benefits of social prescribing and to improve their confidence in offering social and community-based solutions to unmet social needs, and to increase use of social prescriptions for young people across all referral routes, including hospitals, schools and other educational and community settings. It should include resources, guidance and case studies, and should focus in particular on groups that are currently underserved, where the greatest long-term preventative impacts may be accrued.
From: Health and Social Care Committee, First Report - Prevention in health and social care: healthy places (HC 484), paragraph 48, 19 January 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 9 May 2024 (deadline 19 March 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it accepts some of the Committee's recommendations on healthy places but declines others, and states that it has carefully considered all of them.
- On the Decent Homes Standard, it accepts the recommendation, saying the Renters (Reform) Bill will bring the private rented sector under a standard for the first time and that it "intend[s] to publish our consultation on an updated DHS soon".
- On Awaab's Law, it accepts the recommendation. It will publish a consultation response and bring forward secondary legislation for social housing "as soon as practicable", but says the private rented sector needs "a different approach".
- It declines to consult on design and space standards, stating: "we do not believe it is necessary to consult on our design or space standards at this time."
- It declines to make OHID a statutory consultee, saying new statutory consultees would need to be "clearly justified", and that it is "not currently looking to extend the list of statutory consultees".