Shared Outcomes Fund Green Social Prescribing Project Evaluation

The Preventing and Tackling Mental Ill Health through Green Social Prescribing Project (Green Social Prescribing Project) will test how to increase use and connectivity to green social prescribing services in England in order to improve mental health outcomes, reduce health inequalities and reduce demand on the health and social care system. It will also test the role of government in making local systems more resilient and accessible. The Project includes: - Development of seven local system test and learn sites (pilots) in a variety of locations across England; - Experimental work at the national level to understand where and why there is potential for rapid growth in green social prescribing; and - Development of a Leadership Community of local and national practitioners and partners to support, steer and help drive delivery. The Green Social Prescribing Project involves new ways of working across government. The Project is led by Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), supported by Natural England (NE), working with NHS England (NHSE), Public Health England (PHE), Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), Cabinet Office (CO) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The Project involves new ways of working with local partners and stakeholders in different parts of local systems to ensure solutions are co-designed and co-delivered and put citizens at the heart from the outset. This evaluation will play a central role in the Project, in order to iteratively feed into project design and implementation throughout the funded period, and to inform wider rollout of green social prescribing following the initiative. It will help address the current lack of evidence on designing and delivering green social prescribing to achieve mental health and wellbeing outcomes. The evaluation will assess processes, outcomes and value-for-money, and improve