More effective social prescribing could free up between 3- and 8 million GP appointments for those with a clinical need, according to a study by the Open Data Institute (ODI). Social prescribing is a key component of universal personalised care, a healthcare model introduced by the NHS in 2019. It seeks to address issues that are beyond physical clinical diagnosis - such as loneliness, debt and anxiety - by connecting people with community groups and peer support networks.
Its positive benefits are two-fold: the prescribed receive a holistic approach to their rehabilitation, and GPs save precious time and resources. However, the programme is being held back by poor data infrastructure and a lack of available data. “There are significant gaps in the data infrastructure,” said ODI managing director Louise Burke. “Particularly in the data related to the supply of relevant activities, as well as the longitudinal data on the impact of social prescribing.”
These gaps mean that social prescribing link workers and the public sector or charity organisations they work with lack the statistics and real-time service-use data needed to make decisions, build services and gain insight. Moreover, inefficiencies in the service mean that organisations are overwhelmed by demand. Waiting lists grow, and people turn back to time-poor GPs for help.
Dr Ben Molyneux GP, clinical lead for social prescribing and personalised care in North East London said: “If GPs could redirect even 1% of our current caseload to social prescribers, we not only get these people to the right place first time, we also create more capacity to deal with some of the unmet demand and huge backlog facing the NHS as a result of covid.” He added: “Most GPs have a list of success stories arising from social prescribing at a local level, now we need to use data to drive improvements in the system to give the best we can to our patients through a system that works to its full capability.”
The ODI report suggests that further investment in data infrastructure, alongside adequate funding of mental and physical health systems, would help to optimise the delivery of social prescribing. It demonstrates that charities and community providers should be educated about the positive impact that data sharing could have on efficiency. “The provision of activities to support social prescribing is fragmented and very localised,” said Burke. “The data ecosystem is nascent and trust is still developing in this area.”
A central mandate from either the NHS or government would help to bridge this gap, but this is a considerable challenge. Until the publication of the Digital Economy Act 2017 (DEA), the sharing of data between government departments was, in fact, illegal. Since then, the Data Standards Authority has outlined standards to further improve the use of data sharing across government. It is hoped that greater consistency will allow the public sector "to access high quality data quickly, easily and securely, protecting personal data at all times,” but this is a slow burner. The public sector is particularly conscious of scrutiny, and has historically been slow to change. The ecosystem is developing, but significant hurdles remain.
These structural hurdles are mirrored in the corporate world. A lack of data sharing between business units, departments and teams presents a significant hurdle to efficiency within any organisation. Research undertaken by DataIQ in mid-2021 revealed that more than a quarter of time spent on data tasks within respondent organisations is unproductive, taking up 9.1% of total working time to negative effect. Data silos were highlighted as the biggest threat to the use of data, with just under half (49.2%) of organisations looking to overcome this by installing a centralised data asset.
A member of the DataIQ 100 commented that a lack of data sharing and separate data systems are their organisation’s biggest barriers to efficiency. “Its tough to drive efficiency without bringing sources of data into one view,” they said. “One of our key problems is that our HR system is separate to our other systems.”
According to the ODI report, collaboration could be improved by “reducing the cost” of data sharing via improved data foundations, or by mandating it in some instances. However, cost reduction and mandates can only go so far when unsupported by a data-driven culture. One DataIQ leader, head of data strategy at a leading UK supermarket, said: “Our inefficiencies are driven by three key things: a lack of curated data available to our business, a lack of understanding of our data and a lack of understanding of our environment.”
Those seeking a quick fix to data inefficiencies within social prescribing could learn a lesson from those in the corporate world: a robust data infrastructure is a launching pad for efficiency, not an end point. Encouraging data sharing, or creating a centralised data asset, doesn’t guarantee that data is going to be used effectively. Any structural improvements should be coupled with broader improvements to data literacy and an established appreciation of the positive changes that data can bring.
These concepts aren’t lost on those spearheading the social prescribing programme. “The importance of data for link workers in the front-line delivery of social prescribing cannot be underestimated,” said Gita Malhotra, personalised care workforce development lead at North East London Health and Care Partnership. “Improved collection and collation of data not only demonstrates benefits and impact, it can also highlight unmet need and requirements for increased resources.”
The vital role played by data within the health service was laid bare by the pandemic. The ODI report highlights that the same techniques being used to improve efficiencies in the corporate environment can go on to revolutionise the way care is provided and accessed as the NHS recovers from the crisis.
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