It’s been a while since our last SBB Spotlight, a feature where we chat to our team members about their projects and interests, including those outside of work, and find out how they got to where they are.
In this edition, meet Dr Robert Booth, Research Fellow and Trial Manager within the group. He’s currently working on two national trials exploring youth social prescribing as a community-based approach to aiding and sustaining positive mental health and reducing loneliness in young people. Read on to find out more.
Q: Hi Rob, your job sounds really interesting! Could you tell us more about what the role involves and what led you to it?
My role as a Research Fellow and Trial Manager centres on supporting two national randomised controlled trials focused on youth social prescribing. The Trial Manager side involves coordinating delivery across sites and working closely with schools, CAMHS teams, social prescribers, and research colleagues to support recruitment, set-up, data collection, follow-up, and wider trial processes. Alongside that, the Research Fellow part of my role allows me to develop papers arising from the trials and pursue related interests, particularly around sport, bullying, and young people’s experiences of support and belonging.
My route into the role was quite interdisciplinary. At Loughborough University, my background spanned community sport and exercise, psychology, the sociology of gender, youth studies, and interpersonal violence and safeguarding. My PhD explored banter, bullying, and safeguarding in male youth community football, but it also examined what it means for young people to belong and how they develop a sense of wellbeing within their social worlds. In that sense, moving into youth social prescribing felt like a natural step, as it offered a more practical way to build on those ideas. Alongside my PhD, I also developed research experience through projects on interpersonal violence, safeguarding, and youth research with organisations including the International Olympic Committee, Premier League, MCC, and NSPCC. This role felt like a strong fit because it brings together my interest in applied research with my commitment to improving how support systems respond to young people’s lives and relationships.
Q: So, your background isn’t in social prescribing! What drew you to this topic? What would you like to contribute to the field?
That’s true, my background is not in social prescribing directly, but many of the questions that have shaped my research are closely connected to it. I have long been interested in how young people experience belonging, support, exclusion, and wellbeing within the settings that matter to them, whether that is sport, school, peer groups, or community spaces. Social prescribing appealed to me because it recognises that young people’s wellbeing is shaped not only by formal services, but also by the relationships, opportunities, and communities around them.
What I would like to contribute is a perspective that keeps those complexities in view. My previous work, particularly around bullying, safeguarding, and youth sport, has made me passionate about approaches that are relational, youth-led, and context-sensitive rather than one-size-fits-all. In social prescribing, I think that means paying close attention to how support is experienced by young people, what makes community spaces feel safe and meaningful, and how we can strengthen pathways that genuinely help young people feel connected, supported, and able to thrive.
Q: Could you tell us more about the research projects you’re working on, INcreasing AdolesCent social and community supporT (INACT) and CAMHS And Social Prescribing Applications (CASPA)? How do you stay organised managing two trials simultaneously?
I’m currently working across two national trials focused on youth social prescribing. INACT is now a full trial measuring the impact of social prescribing and signposting for young people identified as feeling lonely and likely to benefit from improved community connection, with follow-up over the course of a year. CASPA, by contrast, is a pilot trial focused on the feasibility, acceptability, and suitability of offering social prescribing and signposting to young people who are coming towards the end of psychological treatment for an emotional difficulty.
What I find especially valuable about working across both is that they examine youth social prescribing at different stages and in different contexts. Together, they help build a broader picture of how community-based support might work for young people, while also exploring the practical questions that matter when trying to embed these approaches into real systems and services.
In terms of staying organised, I try to be very structured and communicative. Managing two trials means balancing long-term planning with a lot of day-to-day coordination, so I rely on clear systems, close attention to timelines, and regular communication with the different partners and teams involved. It is busy, but the overlap between the trials also creates useful shared learning, which makes the work particularly rewarding.
Q: What’s coming up for you in the next few months? Any publications interested readers should keep an eye out for?
The next few months are looking busy in a really exciting way. I am currently writing a systematic review on the training needs and barriers experienced by social prescribers, and I am also planning qualitative research exploring sport and physical activity experiences within the social prescribing process. Alongside that, I am supervising MSc projects looking at qualitative experiences of social prescribing and quantitative analyses of trial data on bullying across primary and secondary school contexts, while also continuing to publish from my PhD thesis.
On the trials side, INACT is currently moving through its key three-month follow-up period, so a big immediate priority is making sure that stage runs smoothly. I am also really looking forward to seeing what begins to emerge from those data. Alongside my research work, I am co-leading a module on Health and Behaviour, and I am hoping to complete an application for Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in the near future.
Q: Last week, on 26th March 2026, we celebrated Social Prescribing Day – how did you mark the day? If given the chance, what key messages about social prescribing would you have highlighted to healthcare and policy leaders who may be less familiar with the approach?
Social Prescribing Day was a great opportunity to celebrate the value of community-based support and to highlight the many people and partnerships that make it possible in practice. For me, it was also a chance to reflect on how important connection, belonging, and meaningful opportunities can be for young people’s wellbeing, particularly at a time when many are navigating complex social and emotional challenges.
If I had the chance to highlight a few key messages to healthcare and policy leaders, I would emphasise that social prescribing should not be seen as an optional extra, but as a serious part of how we think about supporting wellbeing in a more joined-up and person-centred way. For young people especially, wellbeing is shaped not only by services, but also by relationships, activities, identity, and access to safe and supportive community spaces. I would also stress that if we want social prescribing to succeed, we need to invest properly in the relationships, local infrastructure, and evidence base that sustain it. Done well, it has real potential to complement existing support by helping young people feel more connected, understood, and able to engage with the things that matter to them.
Q: Given the group’s research on the benefits of hobbies and community activities, we like to end the Spotlight with a slightly more personal question. What do you like to do in your free time?
Outside of work, I enjoy playing football with friends, walking and playing frisbee with my fox red Labrador, Nala, and spending time with my partner Chloe, whether that’s in the fields or by the beach near where we live in Kent. I also love watching sport, listening to music, drinking good coffee, and cooking a good meal. I try to keep up with positive news as well, and I am hoping to pick up an instrument again sometime soon.