FOI 2026/1666

Financials

1. What was the total financial saving or efficiency value associated with changes to social prescribing services in Stockport for 2025/26, and was any specific figure (including £96,000) discussed or set?

Rationale

2. What data and definition of “activity” were used to determine that services were below commissioned levels?

Decision-making

3. Please provide the key document(s) or report(s) that informed the decision to change or reduce social prescribing services.

Equality Impact Assessment

4. Please provide a copy of the Equality Impact Assessment relating to these changes, including identified impacts and any mitigating actions.

Direction and accountability

5. Did NHS Greater Manchester ICB direct or request any reduction in social prescribing services or staffing? If so, please provide relevant correspondence.

1. The Viaduct Care CiC contract efficiencies for 2025/26 totalled £0.246m, achieved through two key adjustments, including a £95k reduction in funding for social prescribing services.

There was no specific reduction allocated to the Stockport social prescribing service. However, as part of the requirement to deliver system efficiencies during 2025/26, NHS Greater Manchester (NHS GM) worked with Viaduct Care CiC to identify areas of service provision that could be repurposed or shrunk where capacity exceeded demand or alternative offers were available.

2. Data used by NHS GM was provided by Viaduct Care CiC as part of its contractual requirement for reporting annual social prescribing referral volumes.

3. A full-service review of all Viaduct Care CiC contracted services was undertaken to inform discussions between the locality commissioner and Viaduct Care provider leads. This identification delivered activity levels which were below those commissioned which resulted in recommendations being presented for budgetary adjustments..

The implementation of the resulting budgetary adjustments was considered by the Stockport Locality System Finance Group in March 2025 and subsequently by the Stockport Locality Executive Board as part of the Cost Improvement Programme on 30 April 2025.

Key documents relating to the overall contract reduction are available in the Stockport Board papers:

https://gmintegratedcare.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/2025-04-30-one-stockport-health-and-care-board-papers.pdf

https://gmintegratedcare.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/20250617-one-stockport-health-and-care-board.pdf

4. A copy of the Equality Impact Assessment is attached

**A word document was sent to the requester with this response.  If you require a copy of the full response, together with the attachments, please contact NHS GM’s FOI team – nhsgm.foi@nhs.net **

5. No, NHS GM did not direct or request any reduction in social prescribing services or staffing. As part of the requirement to deliver system efficiencies during 2025/26, NHS GM asked for all contracts and the services within them to be reviewed in order to identify where provision could be repurposed or reduced, either due to excess capacity or the availability of alternative options.