Social Prescribing Youth Network (SPYN)
A free network for anyone interested in social prescribing for children and young people.
Join the Social Prescribing Youth Network (SPYN) for free to stay up to date with news, developments, resources, funding and training and receive priority invitations to youth social prescribing events.
About the network
Social Prescribing – the means by which people of all ages can find their way into local, wellbeing-boosting initiatives, with the help of a link worker, or community navigator – is now thriving, and delivering fantastic results for people all over the UK.
Traditionally used to help adults and older adults find non-medical ways of combating loneliness and stress, research has shown that social prescribing has multiple health and social benefits for young people too, with dozens of compelling reasons why this work should begin as early in life as possible.
The Social Prescribing Youth Network (SPYN) was founded by StreetGames in 2018 with the ambition that every Primary Care Network in England should have at least one Link Worker dedicated to working with children and young people. SPYN has since grown to over 1,300 members, including Link Workers, voluntary and community organisations, social prescribing coordinators, commissioners, funders, GPs, youth workers, police officers, teachers and researchers. Its achievements have included winning the ‘Children & Young People Now’ Award 2021, delivering a £900k pilot in Sheffield, Southampton, Luton and Brighton & Hove in 2019-21 and publishing numerous resources (see below) including principles for developing an accessible, all-age social prescribing model.
In December 2024 we were delighted to announce that our team at UCL’s Social Biobehavioural Research Group would be the new hosts of the network. Four key individuals are involved in the day-to-day running of SPYN:
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- Dr Daniel Hayes, an expert in youth social prescribing who will head up the network.
- Prof Daisy Fancourt who will provide expertise in running large networks, having led the £1.25 million UKRI MARCH network and 70-country COVID-Minds network.
- Rachel Marshall who manages research communications and impact work for UCL SBB, and
- Nikita Arslanovski who coordinates communications and finance for the team.
What’s next for SPYN?
We’re excited to update that we have now secured funding for the network, enabling us to grow the movement and advance our vision for youth social prescribing. Below is a flavour of what you can expect in the next year:
- A series of roundtables for practitioners, young people, policymakers, commissioners, and researchers
- Updated free online training on youth social prescribing
- Resources to help develop, implement and scale ‘good’ social prescribing specifically for young people
- An end-of-year symposium to connect and share learning
Watch this space, we will announce the details of our first event shortly. In the meantime, please help us by recommending SPYN to people in your network!
How to get involved
New members can join SPYN here to receive future updates about the expanding world of social prescribing for children and young people. Our newsletter will bring you the latest research, resources, events, training and more – all directly to your inbox.
Membership is free and open to all those interested in bringing social prescribing and its benefits to the younger generations. Whether you are a Link Worker, social prescribing coordinator, voluntary and community worker, commissioner, funder, health professional across primary or secondary care, or a researcher – join SPYN and be a part of the youth social prescribing movement in the UK and beyond.
Join the Social Prescribing Youth Network (SPYN) for free to stay up to date with news, developments, resources, funding and training and receive priority invitations to youth social prescribing events.
Contact us
If you have any SPYN-related queries you can get in touch with the team at spyn@ucl.ac.uk.
We would love to showcase and highlight the work and successes of SPYN members in future newsletters. If you have contributions, articles or news stories that you would like to share, please get in touch by emailing us.
Resources
Since its launch in 2018, SPYN has developed numerous practical resources for the sector. You can find an archive of these below. As the network develops with new facilitators in 2025 we look forward to sharing new and updated resources.
Many of the resources below draw on previous work with NHS England & NHS Improvement (NHSE&I), who in 2020 commissioned the Social Prescribing Youth Network to develop a proposal for ‘youth social prescribing’ and help build an all-age model of social prescribing. These resources, authored by Dr Marie Polley, Dr Marcello Bertotti and Paul Jarvis-Beesley were co-produced with: Four pilot delivery sites in Brighton & Hove, Luton, Sheffield and Southampton, over 600 members of the Social Prescribing Youth Network (via an online survey), focus groups of parents, led by Family Action, and Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula (PenARC). SPYN would also like to acknowledge and thank the many others who made invaluable contributions, in particular: Dawn Mitchell, Kerryn Husk, Lorna Burns, Kate Allen, Siobhan Mitchell, Vashti Berry, Daniel Hayes, Andrew Boyd, Sirinda Bhindal, Delia Beck, Jo Robins and Jo Ward.
We also share below resources from our cutting-edge research at UCL, which includes Wellbeing While Waiting (‘INSPYRE’), a major new research programme we are leading in partnership with the Anna Freud Centre. This project is trialling offering immediate social prescribing treatments to children and young people referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services — many of whom face long waiting lists, often leading to a deterioration in their mental health — with the aim of developing a model for embedding social prescribing that can be scaled nationally, bringing social prescribing to more children and young people who could benefit.
Children & Young People’s Social Prescribing Toolkit
A toolkit developed collaboratively to help professionals provide innovative social prescribing for children and young people.
Executive Summary
An overview of these resources and background to the project.
Principles
A set of seven principles for all-age social prescribing.
Case study: YMCA Downslink, Brighton & Hove
The main target group for this project were children and young people aged 11-25 who are socially isolated or at risk of social isolation.
Case study: Sheffield Futures
The main target group for this project were children and young people aged 13-25 with emotional problems.
Case study: NoLimitsHelp, Southampton
The main target group for this project were children and young people aged 11-24 with emotional support need and/or physical/mental disabilities.
Case study: Active Luton
The main target group for this project were children and young people aged 11-18 with high levels of anxiety and/or loneliness.
Youth Link Worker job description template
An example job description that you can use to advertise your own Link Worker role.
Caseload briefing
An evidence-based briefing on caseloads in children and young people’s social prescribing.
Safeguarding and quality assurance
A collection of useful online resources around safeguarding and quality assurance that can be used for youth social prescribing.
Understanding outcomes
A summary of outcomes and measurement tools.
A Guide for CAMHS Practitioners
This guide published in April 2024 shares learnings from UCL’s Wellbeing While Waiting study, aiming to support Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services staff in developing and scaling social prescribing.
Youth social prescribing in action
In November 2024 social prescribers from UCL presented practical examples and reflections drawing on their day-to-day experiences delivering youth social prescribing.
Further reading
- Youth Social Prescribing in Practice
Insights from a 3-year funded youth social prescribing pilot programme in four sites across England. - Social Prescribing for Young People
Paul Jarvis-Beesley, former Head of Health at StreetGames, blogs for UK Youth. - Social Prescribers for Children
StreetGames speaks to Children & Young People Now magazine. - How Social Prescribing Can Help Young People
From the Nursing Children and Young People journal. - Social Prescribing: Your Questions Answered
Answers to FAQs raised by delegates at the StreetGames Youth Social Prescribing Showcase in May 2019. - Association of Colleges Social Prescribing Pilot 2020-2022
A report detailing the impact of the Social Prescribing in Colleges project.