Social prescribing: Cash boost awarded to active travel study

Health professionals and community organisations will unite for the pilot project

Health experts will explore whether GPs could prescribe active travel to treat a variety of conditions after being awarded a funding boost of £100,000.

The grant from the Department for Transport (DfT) will fund a feasibility study in Greater Manchester.

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) said it would provide "a significant step towards social prescribing".

A £2.2m pot has been released from the DfT to more than 30 local authorities in the UK to undertake the research.

Social prescribing by health professionals includes referring patients to a range of non-clinical services to support their health and wellbeing.

This can range from nature-based activities such as gardening, arts and crafts through to physical activity and recreation.

If successful, the scheme would encourage and support people in areas where health inequalities are evident, or people struggle to be more physically active, to adopt active travel into their lives.

Zoe Porter, from Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, said she was "delighted to be able to explore how we can help support more people to incorporate walking and cycling into their lives".

"Unfortunately, so much of modern life doesn't support movement, so building active travel into our goal setting with clients is a great way to tackle this," she added.

Richard Nickson, from TfGM, said: "Although it is early days, this funding would enable us to take a significant step towards social prescribing that will help more people across Greater Manchester to be able to access the positive benefits that comes with active travel, both physically and mentally."