Celebrating Social Prescribing Day 2026 with the launch of NASP as WHO Collaborating Centre

The 26th March was International Social Prescribing Day. We were delighted to spend the afternoon celebrating the launch of the National Academy of Social Prescribing as a WHO Collaborating Centre. 

Hosted by Dr Becky Cooper MP, the celebration included addresses from Dr Bogdan Chiva Giurca, Global and Clinical Lead at NASP, Prof Kamilla Hawthorne MBE, Chair of NASP, Gay Palmer, Social Prescribing Link Worker in Southwark and Angela Rippon CBE, dance enthusiast. All the contributors emphasised the importance of social prescribing as part of the bigger picture of what makes us well. While clinical provision has its place, living well requires more than this: social connection, choice and agency, safety and security, sense of belonging, meaning and purpose. Social Prescribing, and beyond that personalised care, allows health professionals to support patients in accessing activities that can provide these things. 

Other key themes throughout the event included the increasing volume of evidence for social prescribing, the importance of partnership between clinical and non-clinical health and wellbeing provision, the power of social prescribing to provide support that is culturally sensitive to the individual, and the global impact of the social prescribing work pioneered in the UK. 

In thanking their collaborators, we were delighted that Prof Kamilla Hawthorne mentioned Good Faith Partnership and that in his address Minister Stephen Kinnock noted the value of faith as part of social prescribing. In the last few years through producing our research report, ‘Creating a Neighbourhood Health Service’ with Theos, hosting roundtables with the now Archbishop of Canterbury, and collaborating with NASP to develop the Strategic Faith Lead role, we have seen a marked increase in the recognition of the value of faith groups in social prescribing. 

In our conversations at the event, we spoke to researchers, social prescribing link workers and charity leaders who all recognised the value of faith, not only in the delivery of so many activities that can be prescribed to, but also the importance of faith communities in tending to the spiritual and social health of their own community members and those beyond the worshipping community too.

We congratulate the National Academy for Social Prescribing for its recognition by the WHO and its new status as a Collaborating Centre for Social Prescribing Policy and Development. The UK’s legacy of healthcare innovation is something that so many of us are proud of and it is brilliant to see the continuation of this as the UK is recognised for its person-centered care and used as an example to encourage and equip other countries around the world. 

In the global social prescribing context, the UK is also the first country to have a Strategic Faith Lead working at a national level. We are proud to be part of the development of this role and to work alongside NASP in implementing further integration between faith and social prescribing. Dr Bodgan Chiva Giurca remarked at the event that social prescribing puts the human back into healthcare. Faith, meaning and spirituality is a core part of our humanity and we will continue to champion its inclusion in healthcare.

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