IntroductionSocial prescribing has become an important feature of the UK primary care offer. However, there remains limited evidence on how best to implement and deliver social prescribing programmes to maximise effectiveness and long-term sustainability.AimTo explore social prescribing practices and experience of implementing social prescribing programmes across National Institute for Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) Collaborative Leadership for Applied Health and Care Research (CLAHRC) North West Coast (NWC) and NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) NWC region to identify key learning points that can be applied to other settings.MethodWe held a learning exchange workshop attended by practitioners and Public Advisors who had been involved in implementing and evaluating eight different social prescribing programmes with the support of NIHR CLAHRC NWC. We followed this with an online survey of social prescribing practice and priorities within the NIHR ARC NWC area. We used the findings from the workshop and survey to develop an initial model of the elements needed to successfully implement and sustain a working social prescribing programme.FindingsWe identified three core essential elements for a successful social prescribing programme: a personalised approach; meaningful service-user and community involvement; and whole systems working. These core elements need to be supported with adequate resources in the form of continuity of funding and adequate community resources to refer people to, capacity building and appropriate evaluation.ConclusionWe were able to use a learning exchange workshop to both facilitate learning between practitioners and begin the process of identifying the ingredients needed for a successful social prescribing programme, which may be built on with further research.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-023-09574-6.