An evaluation conducted by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University of the pilot phase of the service found that the service had positive social and economic impacts. The service uses a specially developed health and wellbeing tool to measure social outcomes for people referred to the service. Its 8 measures cover different aspects of self-management and wellbeing, such as lifestyle and managing symptoms, to work and volunteering, to friends and family, and people are asked to use a 5 point scale to rate their progress. 17 qualitative interviews were also held with participants and their carers, who were referred to 5 of the 31 service providers.

During the pilot phase of the project, of the 280 participants who had their wellbeing measures followed up after 3-4 months, 83 per cent of people experienced positive change in at least one social outcome area. The biggest changes were seen for patients who scored the least at baseline (work, volunteering etc., and feeling positive); and a majority of low scoring participants (two points or less at baseline) made progress- among them 54% improved their score in work & volunteering area, while 61% improved their score in the feeling positive area. Among the case studies (those interviewed), the positive outcomes described using four broad themes of increased well-being, reduced social isolation and loneliness, increased independence, and access to wider welfare benefits.

There were also significant benefits to the NHS, with inpatient admissions reduced by 21 per cent; Accident and Emergency attendances reduced by as much as 20 per cent; and outpatient appointments reduced by as much as 21 per cent, These increases were calculated looking at patient-level Hospital Episode Statistics provided by the Commissioning Support Unit (CSU), of a cohort of 108 participants who had 12-months of post-referral data available, after being referred between September and December 2012.