The King’s Fund has published a major report on the ARRS, which focuses on four roles — social prescribing link workers; first contact physiotherapists; paramedics and pharmacists — to examine the issues related to the implementation of these roles, looking at the experiences of working in these roles and of the people managing them.
The report found a lack of shared understanding about the purpose or potential contribution of the roles, combined with an overall ambiguity about what multidisciplinary working would mean for GPs. It also found that successful implementation of the scheme requires extensive cultural, organisational and leadership development skills that are not easily accessible to PCNs.