We need to have a national campaign to raise buy-in, and we also need to have campaigns that embed and embrace social prescribing link workers' role as part of the team.Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, Official Report 22 March 2022, COL18
While acknowledging the need for improved communication about social prescribing and its benefits, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport equally expressed his hope that the further roll-out of Multi-Disciplinary Teams would give GPs greater time and capacity to explain these benefits to patients:
I hope that, as the expansion of the MDTs eases the workload pressures on GPs, they will have the time to explain to individuals that social prescribing is not about being fobbed off or passed on but that there is real value in what a community links worker can do.Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, Official Report 29 March 2022, COL18
SAMH explained that GPs do not always recognise the value of Community Link Workers (CLWs) in promoting social prescribing pathways and that this acts as a further barrier to increased uptake:
There is however some work to be done to convince some GPs practices of the value of Link Workers.