Dr Marcello Bertotti
Professor in Public Health
Professor
Public Health, community health, third sector research, social enterprise, social prescribing
Research, Innovation and Enterprise ,
Marcello is a Professor in Community Health. He applies insights from human geography, sociology and economics to the study of health and health inequalities, integrated care, social prescribing, including the development of asset-based approaches to health and well-being.
Qualifications
- BSc in Economics and Politics
- MA in Local Economic Development
- PhD in Economic Geography
Areas Of Interest
- Evaluation of community health interventions
- Evaluation and research on social prescribing
- Realist evaluation
- Community engagement
- Asset based approaches to health
- Health inequalities
- Economic evaluation of health interventions
OVERVIEW
Marcello is a professor in Community Health at the Institute for Connected Communities. His primary role is to develop and lead public health research, from securing funding and conducting studies to publishing the results in peer-reviewed academic journals.
Marcello has 20 years of experience in the research and evaluation of community health interventions, social enterprise, asset-based health approaches, and social prescribing.
His work uses a variety of methodologies, including realist evaluation and social network analysis. He has also used systematic review approaches like meta-narrative and systematic mapping to study health interventions and communities. He is a co-founder of both the Social Prescribing Network and the Social Prescribing Youth Network, and he helps deliver an accredited Level 3 certificate in social prescribing.
Marcello supervises PhD students whose research focuses on health inequalities. He is open to supervising doctoral research on alternative approaches to promoting health and well-being, as well as the economic and social determinants of health and mental health.
External roles
- Steering group member of the social prescribing network
- UCL Partner Improvement Fellow
- Advisory board of Soziales Rezept (social prescribing research in Germany)
- Advisory board of BBB RandE (Bromley by Bow Centre development)
- Advisory board of Worthwhile While Waiting (social prescribing for children and young people research led by UCL)
- Advisory board of Financial Shield (organisation providing financial advice to people with a range of long-term conditions through a social prescribing approach)
- Guest editor for the Health & Social Care in the Community Journal special issue.
FUNDING
Marcello has secured research grants from several prestigious organisations, including the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), and the Health Foundation (Shine). He has also led research and consultancy projects for NHS England (NHS-E), the Department of Health, Public Health England, the Newham Clinical Commissioning Group, the Greater London Authority, and the private sector.
Sep 2023 Bertotti (Co-I) Digital Social Prescribing, UEL Impact Builder
March Bertotti (PI) Evaluation of the integrated social prescribing model in Redbridge, Redbridge Council
- Jan 2022 Bertotti (Co-I) Capabilities, Opportunities, Places and Engagement: a neighbourhood Community Network Approach for Social Inclusion of Difficult to Reach Young People, European Commission
- Sep 2021 Bertotti (Co-I) The use of social prescribing and community-based wellbeing activities as a potential prevention and early intervention pathway to improve adolescent emotional and social development, Three NIHR Schools Mental Health Research Programme
- Sep 2021 Bertotti (Co-I) Common Health Assets: a mixed methods realist evaluation and economic appraisal of how community-led organisations impact on the health and wellbeing of people living in deprived areas, NIHR
- July 2020 Bertotti (Co-PI) Developing social prescribing to improve mental health and wellbeing for children and young people, UKRI Emerging Minds
- Sep 2020 Bertotti (Co-PI) Sustainability as a behaviour? Exploring the sustainability of community assets for mental health using the Behaviour Change Wheel and the Theoretical Domains Framework, UKRI (March Network)
- Mar 2016 Bertotti, M (PI) An evaluation of the social prescribing pilot in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, Waltham Forest Council and Waltham Forest CCG
SUPERVISION AND EXTERNAL ROLES
Marcello delivers the accredited Level 3 certificate in Social Prescribing with Conexus and Bromley by Bow Centre.
Marcello's teaching areas include: social enterprise, research methods, critical practices and perspectives in health promotion, and health policy.
He has supervised students on the UEL undergraduate course on social enterprise and is currently supervising four PhD students (two as Director of Studies) in the areas of reciprocity and altruism (time banks), the validation of a quality of life measurement (CASP) in Pakistan, physical activity and superdiversity, and civic engagement and health.
PUBLICATIONS
Visit the UEL research repository to view a full list of publications.
Publications
Browse past publications by year.
Full publications list
Visit the research repository to view a full list of publications
- Social Prescribing for Young People in NEET Situations: A Realist Evaluation of the C.O.P.E. Project in Italy and Portugal SSM - Mental Health. 7 (Art. 100440). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2025.100440
- Lessons learned on the sustainability of social prescribing interventions: a Delphi analysis conducted in the C.O.P.E. European Advancements in Health Research. 2 (33). https://doi.org/10.4081/ahr.2025.33
- A realist synthesis of interventions for youth not in education, employment or training (NEET): building programme theories for effective support, International Journal of Adolescence and Youth . 30 (1), p. Art. 2472022. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2025.2472022
- A service ecosystems perspective to explore social prescribing value co-creation for vulnerable young people in NEET situation BMC Health Services Research. 25 (Art. 88). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-12182-7
- The Social Prescribing Link Worker—Clarifying the Role to Harness Potential: A Scoping Review Health and Social Care in the Community. 2025 (Art. 4394123), pp. 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1155/hsc/4394123
- Loneliness and Social Isolation: qualitative study among youth in vulnerable situations European Journal of Public Health. 34 (Supp. 3). https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckae144.1817
- Building common understanding: seeking consensus and defining social prescribing across contexts – a collective commentary on a Delphi study BMC Health Services Research. 24 (Art. 1280). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-11603-x
- Is Government Policy a Barrier or Facilitator to the Work of Place-Based Community-led Nonprofits? Nonprofit Policy Forum. p. In Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/npf-2024-0003
- Barriers and facilitators to social prescribing in child and youth mental health: Perspectives from the frontline European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 33, pp. 1465-1479. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-023-02257-x
- Link Workers in Social Prescribing for Young People work: a case study from Sheffield International Journal of Integrated Care. 24 (Art. 8), pp. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.7551
- Common health assets protocol: a mixed-methods, realist evaluation and economic appraisal of how community-led organisations (CLOs) impact on the health and well-being of people living in deprived areas BMJ Open. 13 (Art. e069979). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-069979
- Do people perceive benefits in the use of social prescribing to address loneliness and/or social isolation? A qualitative meta-synthesis of the literature BMC Health Services Research. 22 (Art. 1264). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08656-1
- Social prescribing for children and young people The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health . 6 (12), pp. 835-837. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(22)00248-6
- Factors affecting the sustainability of community mental health assets: A systematic review Health and Social Care in the Community. 30 (6), pp. e3369-e3383. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13929
