Early Years Social Prescribing
Early Years Social Prescribing: Our Evidence Base
Our Commitment to Evidence-Based Practice
At Lloyd Park Children’s Charity, our Early Years Social Prescribing Service is grounded in a strong and growing evidence base. We recognise that children’s development is shaped not only by healthcare, but by family wellbeing, relationships, and the wider social factors affecting everyday life.
Our work focuses on supporting families experiencing challenges such as developmental delay, financial hardship, parental wellbeing needs, and social isolation.
Why the Early Years Matter
Research shows that the early years are a critical period for children’s development. Parenting and the parent–child relationship play a key role in shaping children’s emotional, social, and long-term health outcomes.
Parental mental health is particularly important:
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Mothers are around twice as likely to experience depression during childbearing years
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Children of parents experiencing poor mental health are more likely to develop anxiety and depression
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Parenting stress can influence how difficulties are passed between parent and child.
Importantly, research highlights that many of the risks affecting children are modifiable within the family environment, meaning timely support can make a real difference.
What is Social Prescribing?
Social prescribing connects families to community-based support, activities, and practical resources to improve wellbeing.
Studies show this approach can:
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Reduce loneliness and isolation
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Improve mental health and emotional wellbeing
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Increase confidence, resilience, and coping skills
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Strengthen community connections and support networks
It also helps address the wider determinants of health, such as housing, relationships, and financial pressures, which are often at the root of many challenges families face.
Why Social Prescribing for Families?
Supporting parents is one of the most effective ways to improve outcomes for children.
Research shows that:
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Parent and child mental health are closely linked and influence each other
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Interventions that support both parent and child together are more effective
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Strengthening parenting capacity improves children’s development and life chances
By improving parental wellbeing, social prescribing helps create more stable, nurturing environments for children to thrive.
The Power of Community and Connection
A strong sense of belonging and connection to others is essential for wellbeing.
Evidence shows that when people feel part of a community, they experience:
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Greater emotional support and resilience
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A stronger sense of purpose and identity
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Improved overall health and wellbeing
This is why our service focuses on building local connections and supportive relationships, not just providing services.
Co‑Production: Working Together with Families
Our approach is co-produced with families through our CoCo East project. This means parents and community members actively shape the support available.
Research shows co-production:
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Improves engagement and relevance of services
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Builds confidence, empowerment, and independence
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Reduces social isolation
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Leads to more sustainable and effective support
It also recognises that communities understand their own needs best, and that tailored, local solutions are more effective than generic approaches.
Tackling Inequality Early
Children growing up in disadvantaged circumstances experience poorer health and developmental outcomes due to social and economic factors.
Social prescribing helps to address these inequalities by:
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Providing early, preventative support
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Reducing reliance on crisis services
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Improving access to community resources and opportunities
This approach supports fairer outcomes for children and families.
How Our Approach Works
Research highlights that effective social prescribing services are:
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Person-centred and holistic
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Built on strong partnerships across services
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Focused on co-producing solutions with families
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Designed to build long-term resilience and independence
Our Early Years Social Prescribing model reflects these principles in practice.
Measuring Our Impact
We use evidence-based approaches to understand the difference our service makes, including looking at:
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Sense of belonging within the community
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Levels of social support
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Experiences of loneliness or isolation
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Overall wellbeing and quality of life
This helps ensure we are continually improving and delivering meaningful outcomes for families.
Summary
The evidence is clear, supporting parents, strengthening relationships, and connecting families to their communities can have a powerful and lasting impact on children’s development.
Early Years Social Prescribing offers a preventative, holistic, and evidence-informed approach that improves wellbeing for the whole family and helps children get the best possible start in life.
Our Evidence Base
This work is informed by a range of research, including:
Daundasekara et al. (2021) – parental mental health and child outcomes
Thomas et al. (2021) – social prescribing and co-production
Hassan et al. (2023) – social prescribing systems and implementation
Wakefield et al. (2022) – social connection and wellbeing
Goldfeld et al. (2017) – social determinants of child development
Waylen et al. (2008) – parenting and child health outcomes
Kuckertz et al. (2018) – parenting and child mental health