Referring someone else
Social prescribing is the route by which a GP practice or other NHS service connects a patient to non clinical support in the community.
Family, GPs, link workers, social workers and teachers putting someone in touch with a befriending or mentoring scheme.
The other person’s say in it. A referral is an offer made on somebody’s behalf, and it fails, politely and slowly, if they were not really asked.
A relative fills in a form, a volunteer is recruited and checked over several weeks, and at the first visit the person says they never agreed to it. The place in the queue is wasted, and the person is now less likely to accept help next time.
That support includes befriending, exercise groups, gardening projects and debt advice, and the connection is normally made by a social prescribing link worker whose job is exactly that. It is the most common professional referral route into befriending for adults in England, with community link workers performing a comparable role in Scotland and equivalents in Wales and Northern Ireland. Anyone can also refer directly: schemes take referrals from families, professionals and the person themselves, and self referral is the cleanest of the three.
How a referral to a befriending or mentoring scheme is made
A referral is made to a named local scheme, not to a national body, because eligibility, catchment and waiting are all decided locally. The sequence is short. Find the scheme covering the postcode. Check its written eligibility, usually about age, area and circumstance. Ask the person whether they want it, in those words. Complete the referral form or ring the coordinator. Then expect the coordinator to contact the person directly, because a scheme will want to speak to the person themselves before matching, unless they lack capacity for the decision or are a child, and those two cases are set out below.
Most schemes want the same six things: the person’s name and contact details, their age and address, why befriending or mentoring is being suggested, any access or communication needs, any known risks including anything relevant about the household, and confirmation that the person consents. Say what they would actually like to do, if you know. A referral reading “isolated since her husband died, misses talking about birds” produces a better match than one reading “lonely”.
Consent is the part people get wrong
Consent from the person being referred is required, and no relative, GP or teacher supplies it on behalf of an adult who has capacity. Capacity is presumed in law: in England and Wales the Mental Capacity Act 2005 starts from the presumption that an adult can decide for themselves, and Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own capacity legislation with the same starting point. Someone may decide in a way others think unwise, including refusing company they would clearly benefit from, and it remains their decision.
Three situations sit outside that plain rule.
Where an adult lacks capacity for this specific decision, someone may act in their best interests under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in England and Wales, and under the equivalent capacity legislation in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The decision maker is whoever is proposing to act, so for a day to day matter such as accepting a befriending service it is often the family carer rather than a professional. They must consult anyone caring for the person and any attorney or deputy, and they must start from what the person themselves would have wanted, not from what looks best for them now.
Where the person is a child, a scheme will normally require consent from a parent or carer as well as the young person’s own agreement, and it is the young person’s agreement that decides whether it works. That consent is scheme policy and safeguarding practice rather than a rule any single statute writes down. The child welfare framework around it is the Children Act 1989 in England and Wales, the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 in Scotland and the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 in Northern Ireland, and schools in England additionally work to Keeping Children Safe in Education.
Where you pass on personal information, UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 require the scheme to have a lawful basis for holding and sharing it. A voluntary scheme commonly relies on the person’s own consent, and information about health, disability or mental health is special category data, which needs a further condition on top of the lawful basis. The scheme should be able to tell you which basis it is using.
The person making the referral
- Asks the person first, in plain words, and accepts no as an answer
- Shares only the information the scheme needs to match and to keep people safe
- Names any risk honestly, including anything about the household
- Tells the person what happens next, and how long it may take
The person being referred
- Decides whether to accept, and may change their mind at any stage
- Speaks to the coordinator themselves before any match is made
- Says what they want from it, which may not be what the referrer assumed
- Refuses without having to justify the refusal to anyone
The scheme contacts the person directly, confirms consent itself rather than relying on the referrer, and records what it was told and by whom. It applies its written retention policy, commonly six years after the match closes, and far longer where a safeguarding concern about a child is involved: the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse recommended retention of such records for 75 years, and schemes should assume the long period applies.
Waiting lists, and what the wait is actually for
Waiting for a befriending or mentoring match is normal, and the wait is almost never administrative. Schemes are limited by volunteers, not desks: a volunteer takes 6 to 12 weeks from application to first meeting, most of it references, training and criminal record checking through the Disclosure and Barring Service in England and Wales, PVG scheme membership in Scotland or AccessNI in Northern Ireland. One full time coordinator holds 30 to 50 active matches, fewer where referrals are complex, so a scheme cannot absorb demand by trying harder.
Ask the coordinator what the wait looks like for this particular person, because it depends on the match rather than a queue position: a weekday daytime visitor in a town is found faster than an evening visitor in a village, and a request for a specific language, gender or shared interest takes longer. Telephone befriending usually starts sooner than home visiting, since no travel radius has to be solved. This site publishes no waiting times for any named service.
The person does not want it
Stop the referral and tell the scheme. Do not arrange the match and hope they warm to it, because a volunteer will have spent weeks preparing and the person will then have to refuse a real human being at their own front door. Ask what the refusal is about, since it is usually a specific fear rather than the idea itself: a stranger in the house, feeling pitied, or being a burden. A telephone match, or a short trial with an agreed review, answers most of those. Leave the offer open and record that it was declined.
Referring a child or young person
Referrals for children and young people go through schools, youth services and children’s charities rather than social prescribing, which is built around adult primary care. Two rules govern them. The young person agrees as well as the parent or carer, because a mentee volunteered by an adult rarely engages. And the commitment is 12 months: matches ending before three months are associated with outcomes worse than no match at all (Grossman and Rhodes, 2002), so a six week block is not an equivalent offer.