FOI 2025/1262

1. How much funding has been commissioned to each borough in Greater Manchester for social prescribing in April 2025 onwards?
2. How much funding was allocated to social prescribing in each borough of Greater Manchester from April 2024 to April 2025?
3. How much funding has each borough in Greater Manchester lost for social prescribing from April 2024 to current date?
4. How many redundancies including employees at risk of redundancy have been made in social prescribing organisations in each borough of Greater Manchester since April 2025?

NHS Greater Manchester ICB (NHS GM) commissions social prescribing services in two ways. Firstly, localities can commission specific social prescribing services for their borough based on the assessed needs of the population.

Secondly, social prescribing services can be commissioned as part of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS). The ARRS scheme provides funding to Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and local GPs to recruit staff in a range of areas, with funding being provided on a reimbursement basis. The PCNs are responsible for the decision to recruit particular staff (e.g. Social Prescribers) and for their ongoing employment – NHS GM’s responsibility is to reimburse the PCNs for the costs incurred in line with the principles of the scheme, rather than to directly commission specific ARRS services.

In addition, in 2025/26, the ARRS scheme changed to offer PCNs more flexibility in how they apply ARRS funding. Funding is now available more flexibly and can be applied (for example) for additional GP roles in PCNs rather than being ringfenced for particular roles (such as social prescribers). It is therefore for PCNs to determine how best to utilise the ARRS funding available for the good of their patients, and a range of PCNs have elected to reduce their staffing level for roles such as social prescribing to instead apply ARRS funding for additional GPs. These are decisions of the PCNs and their constituent GP practices as providers to NHS GM, rather than of NHS GM itself.

For questions 1-3, the response is therefore divided into non-ARRS related roles, and ARRS related roles:

*Note, the above table only shows reductions in funding for the specific localities, rather than being a net position of increases in some localities, and reductions in respect of Stockport. As per the above, the majority of localities have either held funding static, or have a budgeted increase in funding for 2025/26 compared to 2024/25 outturn, but values are not included in the final column.

ARRS funding

As described above, Social Prescribing spending is budgeted for as part of the wider ARRS scheme, and PCNs are able to allocate funds as they wish. As such, there is no specific budget for Social Prescribers, but funding is available to PCNs to pay social prescribers if they so wish. The overall ARRS funding has increased for 2025/26, however, PCNs have made decisions to reallocate funding to different ARRS priorities. As such, the table below shows the forecast spend for localities for social prescribers under the ARRS scheme. No balance is shown for funding reduction, as NHS GM considers that the funding for social prescribers via ARRS remains, if PCNs wish to employ them.

4. NHS GM does not hold information in respect of the potential for redundancies at independent providers. How a provider responds to changes in funding levels is a matter for them as employers rather than for NHS GM as the commissioner of services. Whether individuals are at risk of redundancy depends on a range of factors, including funding, but also whether suitable alternative employment opportunities are available within their organisation, and how the provider chooses to allocate their resources.