The two-day collaborative conference held in July at the University of Westminster offered an exciting opportunity to hear the latest research and thinking on the implementation and practice of social prescribing around the world including in Canada, the Netherlands, Singapore, and Finland as well as understanding progress in the home countries of the UK.

The conference was chaired by Dr Michael Dixon, National Clinical Lead Social Prescribing at NHS England and co-chair of the Social Prescribing network alongside Dr Marie Polley also co-chair of the Social Prescribing network.

The key note lecture ‘The evidence base behind lifestyle medicine’ was given by Prof Dean Ornish, American physician and researcher and president and founder of the Preventative Medicine Institute in California. Other speakers included James Sanderson, Director of Personalised Care at NHS England who spoke about ‘Implementation of Social Prescribing across England – a system perspective’, as well as Dr Daisy Fancourt (Senior Fellow/Wellcome Research fellow UCL) who gave a presentation on social prescribing for population health based on UK cohort studies.

Workshops explored culture change and collaborative ways of working, quality assurance developments, economic sustainability, digital approaches and supporting workforce development in Social Prescribing.