Jo joined the Social Prescribing Network at the end of 2016 and at this time she was privileged to be chosen to lead a number of projects for an NHS maternity vanguard and women and children's partnership which ultimately developed the first Social Prescribing Concordat for Creative Health for the then Cheshire and Merseyside Health Care Partnership (HCP)now the ICS; followed by the National Women and Children's Creative Health handbook: Wellbeing by Design. She practices what she preaches, asset-based working and is a hugely valued member of the Network committee.

Jo is a freelance consultant with a dynamic career, often working at the intersection of sectors to spark innovation and collaboration. She began campaigning for lifelong learning and adult education, quickly linking health, education, and wellbeing. While at the Open University, she led Adult Learners' Week in North West England and served on its national steering group for over a decade. There, she also leveraged BBC content to promote proactive outreach and encourage women into science and technology.

She later joined the BBC full-time, developing "learning on prescription" initiatives with cultural partners, forging strong ties with Health Education England (HEE) and the museum sector. Jo then became a senior policy adviser at the Museum Libraries and Archives Council, focusing on social justice and wellbeing. In 2015, NHS England invited her to create a shadow social prescribing network in the North West and Yorkshire. Around the same time, she developed HEE's first Widening Participation Directory, Social Prescribing at a Glance and the Halton Cultural Manifesto for Wellbeing. 

Good for you, good for us, good for everybody

What I do: Social prescribing in a women's health and maternity context.

Maternal and infant mortality rates are strong indicators of the overall health of a society, and they are definitely not going in the right direction in England. Disparities in maternal mortality and still birth rates are stark with race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geographic location all impacting on access to and the quality of healthcare. I believe social prescribing provides an invaluable opportunity to address health inequalities. This is particularly, pertinent in women's health and maternity context and in part explains why I do what I do.

There are few reasons for this:

Stop inequality before it starts

The two main predictors of future life prospects for any baby are maternal mental health and parental employment. Despite, maternal mental health being a significant public health concern suicide remains a leading cause of maternal death.

The foundations for all development; physical, intellectual, and emotional, are laid in early childhood. Evidence tells us that when a baby's development falls behind during the first year of life, it is then much more likely to fall even further behind in subsequent years, than to catch up with those who have had a better start. Social prescribing focused on women and children therefore provides a means to address health inequalities before they start.

Health is a human right

2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BpfA). It's regarded as a bill of rights, affirming that women's rights are human rights and that equality between women and men benefits everyone. It provides a timely reminder gender equality is not a zero-sum game. Or put it another way:


'When we get it right for women, everyone in our society benefits.' Professor Dame Lesley Regan.

So, it is an important juncture to reflect on what has been going on then and now.

Although the UK is the sixth riches nation in the world we have the largest gender health gap in the G20. This reflects differences in both the prevalence of disease, health outcomes, and access to healthcare for women. Women in the UK also have the second-lowest life expectancy in Western Europe and maternal mortality rates are at the highest levels seen in almost 20 years. There has also been a sustained and 'unprecedented rise in infant mortality' in England which 'disproportionately' affects the 'poorest areas of the country'.

When you also look at A&E attendance, the main attendees are under 1s. And there is a very worrying trend in relation to cancer rates. For women under 50, the risk of developing cancer is now 82 percent higher than their male counterparts, up from 51 percent in 2002.

We also know women are also more likely to be misdiagnosed and over or under medicated because they are underrepresented in medical research and clinical trials. Currently, we are also seeing a very real threat to women's reproductive rights and ability to access essential healthcare in the UK. This is not progress. Change is needed.

Since COVID waiting lists for gynaecological conditions have grown by more than 60%and that's more than any other speciality; because it seems when there is pressure on NHS funding women and children's service bear the brunt of cuts. The government's enquiry into women's health (2021) reported over 80 % of respondents said they weren't listened to or not believed by healthcare staff about a range of conditions. To put it simply women do not have a voice and this is exacerbated by the stigma and taboo that surrounds women's reproductive health .The most recent bi-annual women's reproductive health survey ; a commitment from the Women's Health Strategy for England, also appears to have stalled having just started to reveal the true scale of the reproductive health problems women face. These issues have a devastating impact on women and wider society and the economy too.

It is with this backdrop I have been developing a unique NHS led creative health programme with a range of stakeholders and essential partnerships to create a range of interventions that not only promote wellbeing but also provide a new kind of tool kit to enhance treatment and management opportunity for women with obvious spin offs for the wider family as well as the NHS.

Cause of cause

My social prescribing journey in a women's health context began by considering what we could do to respond to MBRRACE data. This maps disparities in maternal mortality rates. It tells us Black women are four times more likely to die in pregnancy than their White counterparts. There are several deeply entrenched reasons for this but back in 2018 we were acutely aware that swingeing cuts in English language courses for speakers of other languages (ESOL)was impacting negatively on already reduced access to healthcare by women.

Language

The NHS has traditionally responded to language barriers by funding translation services, which haven't been able to keep pace with increasing demand which is exacerbated by cuts in ESOL. These translation services are invaluable when available, but they do not address the cause of the cause.

Having done some research I reached out to a European research programme, LUCiD , based at Manchester University where they had developed a unique and highly successful, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Stepping Stones programme for non-English speaking mothers and their babies. Their focus was on providing a means to convey vital information about parenting, health, and general child development. The mothers comprised of a particularly vulnerable group who were less likely to engage early (if at all) with NHS services and support groups aimed at pregnant women, or new parents, due to linguistic and cultural factors.

So, we engaged the Manchester University researcher, Sharon Freeman, convened a group of midwives and education specialists and we then worked with local mums to create new content and found someone to fund it. As a result, parents from this vulnerable demographic were enabled to access vital and additional information about navigating the NHS and women's health as well as parenting and general child development. The participants were supported to act as recruiters for those women the NHS all too easily label 'hard to reach.' This also proved fertile ground for recruitment of women into the NHS. This was our first Learning on Prescription offer. A newly devolved City Region funded it, and we built a partnership with library and museum partners to host it. We then ensured the NHS provided integrated support with midwives and health visitors attached, as well as other wrap around provision like social prescribers.

What we also realised very quickly was there were other wins to be had. By integrating health student placements in this provision, we could increase understanding about the wider determinants of health early in career development, amplify health literacy components of the ESOL programme itself; and build and share new resources whilst addressing a student placement bottle neck. What's more the investment was cross sector, and everyone benefitted from better inter and intra-professional communication by dismantling problematic professional and sectoral silos through collaborative working. This is what asset-based working looks like and its central to social prescribing.

Maternal mental health

Our next and inter linked challenge was to look to how we could respond differently to a maternal mental health crisis. Our go to place was, in this instance the music sector. Why? Because UK academics were undertaking pioneering work effectively harnessing and evidencing the power of music and song to address perinatal mental health. So, we invited Dr Rosie Perkins to speak to our healthcare system as part of the NHS 70 and launched a social prescribing concordat for creative health which all ten local authorities signed up to.

Rosie blew the audience away and paved the way for a next step conversation with Carnegie Hall New York, who had developed the Lullaby project. The Lullaby project supported access to healthcare for marginalised groups of women in the USA. It pairs a professional musician with mothers and caregivers to write, sing and record personal lullabies for their babies. Carnegie Hall had invested heavily in evidencing of the value of the Lullaby project, and this provided an invaluable resource to build on and a rich seam of asset-based learning.

A few emails later, at the height of the COVID pandemic, we launched an international partnership with Carnegie Hall to develop a bespoke NHS version of the Lullaby project with our own expert music partner in the UK, Live Music Now. Three models were developed during COVID. This work continues to grow with the support of a well-defined theory of change for which we are eternally grateful to Dr Kerry Wilson. And then there is the passion and energy that Live Music Now brings to the table as well as the specially trained musicians. Central to all this work are the voices of those women who participate. They tell it as it is. Listen to Colette's story here. But that's not all. Whilst the NHS is struggling with a means to increase safety in maternity contexts our new American partners in Oakland California have been using the Lullaby project to deliver continuity of carer and sharing impressive results. And that's not all-they've been registering a significant impact on midwives who had suffered burnout and have rediscovered their Mojo. Social prescribing approaches just keep giving and continue to demonstrate what is good for patients is good for healthcare staff too and vice versa. Happy staff deliver better care.

Return on investment

Our early ESOL work has been further validated as an NHS investment by recent research by Maria Rowntree as part of a fellowship at Southbank University. As a practicing midwife she has interrogated MBRRACE data. It now appears women who don't speak English are twenty-five times more likely to die in pregnancy than those that do. We are currently on a journey to reinvent ESOL Stepping Stones for a very different educational and political context with a team of student midwives and their tutors making it a reality.

Whilst we were exploring the power of music to make change happen, we also started to investigate what could we do differently to reflect chronically low breastfeeding rates by addressing a wider negative breastfeeding culture in the UK, which impacts more on those low socio-economic groups who would most benefit.

So, we invested in an artist, Lisa Creagh, who was on a mission to change the UK breastfeeding culture through a multi-dimensional, cross genre arts programme, Holding Time. In 2021, utilising COVID recovery funding ,mothers in Cheshire and Merseysidewere invited to share their breastfeeding experiences in video interviews and participate in workshops and a photo shoot. Across audio, video, animation and stills, the mothers discussed breastfeeding in all its complexity, calling out the barriers that still mean many women who want to breastfeed, stop before they are ready.

Through a cross-sector partnership, we were able to put in place a rolling programme of developments which gave breastfeeding a much-needed public profile and women a voice. This work created rich resources to play the milk formula companies at their own game. By utilising content created with participating women we developed audio trails, touring exhibitions (I See You) and writing workshops (Hear Me Roar) all designed to help dispel many breastfeeding myths and bring reproductive health issues out into the open. By harnessing Google Ads Holding Time was also able to propagate a different reality about the value of breastfeeding which magnified the reach of the project hugely.

The NHS initial seed funding has generated more than a five-fold investment from elsewhere and a national Royal Society for Public Health award for I See You as part of NHS 75 celebrations. This work is feeding back into Family Hub developments, providing a very real return on investment. Meanwhile, women in their communities are also equipped to support each other as Holding Time nurtures assets which grow assets.

Hear me roar

In 2023 we looked to extend the Writing on Prescription programme initiated through the Holding Time platform. Hear Me Roar became the Improving Me, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside women's health and maternity engagement campaign theme for 2023.This work reflected an emerging women's health strategy. It was a direct response to the overwhelming feedback during the enquiry stage which said, again and again, no one listens to us. And that's how the 51% workshops were born. Dr Rachel New a broadcaster and writer, developed the 51% for Improving Me working closely with NHS staff. Rachel then nurtured and expertly guided the class of 2023 in the art of the possible.

The 51% functions on two levels: to nurture and amplify women's voices and to call society and our healthcare system to account. It was commissioned and co-designed to enable women to explore, express and articulate their feelings of being a woman in a society; where women's health is characterised by taboo and stigma; and where myths and misconceptions are widespread. Put simply, to give women a voice, in a world where women's health is more often than not, secreted away because it is seen as intrinsically dirty and polluting, which impacts negatively on all women and girls in a myriad of ways. It got women talking and sharing that is the best weapon to address stigma and taboo.

There is lots more going on as you can see. The 51% is asset rich. The work women created has gone into a digital anthology which has been accessioned into library collections and the participants are encouraged to deliver regular performances in a variety of community venues. The women who have benefitted just keep putting back. The detailed evaluation of the 51% by Dr Kerry Wilson tells us why.

What we've learnt

Social prescribing is to steal a headline, 'Good for you, good for us, good for everybody' , if you don't believe me ask the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England. What's more it provides an opportunity to reduce overprescribing (polypharmacy and an opioids crisis) to 'make patient care better and safer, support the NHS, and reduce carbon emissions'. Another intersection!

So, that's good for people and the planet. But that is another story….

Jo Ward
Change Maker

June 2025 

About Jo:

Part of the world I live: I'm based in Stockport Greater Manchester in the UK

Occupation: I'm a Changemaker. That's what I do. That's how my clients and colleagues describe me; especially given the range of the work I undertake which means it tends to defy any simple categorisation. I focus on promoting social justice and fostering wellbeing and work with people who share the same values.

A considerable chunk of my work has been for the NHS to support innovation through a social prescribing lens, for NHS England and a women's health and maternity programme. But I also work with Museum Development North to advise museums on how to harness their assets for 'community good.' I am currently leading the UK arm of an ERASMUS + project, Social Prescribing and Civic Engagement (SPACE), on green and blue prescribing to address cancer rehabilitation in the UK and Europe.

What makes you well?
Working in nature – I set up a community group focused on addressing the climate emergency and the dramatic decline in biodiversity. It involves recruiting and supporting lots of volunteers to give nature a hand. We get very dirty and generally wet. It rains a lot in Manchester.

Why is social prescribing important for the future?
I'm old enough to remember when the rich weren't so rich and the poor didn't have 3 jobs and still struggle to make ends meet. This situation is feeding health inequalities and the most vulnerable in our society suffer most. What 's more, there is no real sign of any political will or effective action to address this inequity systemically. So, my view is, we need to enable people to take positive action to grow wellbeing and build on what is working. This also involves more power sharing with patients. Social prescribing provides a vehicle to do this collaboratively whilst ameliorating some of the damage and it create the kind of conversations to make the demand for systemic change to happen.

What is amazing about social prescribing is it looks to address the cause of the cause whilst empowering the patient to understand what is actually happening. It shines a light on just how damaging health inequalities are to people, the environment, and the economy. Moreover, it dispels the myths that health inequalities are all about individual failings. Health inequalities are not only unfair and unjust they are avoidable. So rather than wait for the politicians to do something we can get on with looking to tip the balance back to a fairer more caring society where health creation is a real priority. Addressing health inequalities improves the quality of life for individuals, reduces preventable demand on healthcare services, and benefits the wider economy. In short, it's good for people, the planet, and the economy. What's not to like.

Your favourite nature-based space?
The Lost Gardens of Heligan, Mevagissey in Cornwall, England.

Your favourite music?
That's a tough one. I've got very eclectic taste but I'm very partial to Gil Scott Heron.

Your favourite pastime?
Being in my garden and enjoying the fruits of nature.

If you had one wish for social prescribing, what would it be?
Let's stop the postal code lottery and address the funding deficit for wellbeing journeys and ensure resource follows the patient.

What are your leadership tips for others who want to set up social prescribing projects?

1. If you get told, no and you know in your gut it's the right thing to do, don't doubt yourself. Find other people who get it and build alliances.

1. Never forget to seek to understand the objectors.

1. Timing is everything. There is always a way even if it means going round, over or under the nay sayers. It's a long game.

Which one person has most influenced you and why?
My parents (they came as a unit). They were thoughtful and kind warriors, never afraid to ask why and stick their heads above the parapet. Always the first to speak out and challenge wrongdoing.

Any advice for others when working in this space with communities?

You need to surround yourself with radiators and avoid the drains or they will bleed you dry.