Local authorities and health services are still facing the challenging combination of budget cuts and an increased demand for public services. The commissioners and policy makers who design our public services, have to strike a balance between ensuring that people still receive the best treatment and support possible, while keeping costs down.
A new model of public services is one way of addressing these challenges. One that is built on preventing harm and reducing people’s need for acute services, without compromising the wellbeing of the individuals and communities who rely on these services.
But there’s also another option, that hasn’t been explored until now. The arts and culture sector also has an important role to play in our public services. So how could this work?
The value of arts and culture
Many organisations across the UK are finding new ways of applying arts and cultural activities to a whole host of services for mental and physical health, early intervention, environmental services and support for older people and youth services. These innovative new schemes are paving the way to better outcomes for the people and communities who use these health services.
Today we launch a new report that draws on the learning from 18 months of practical work with local authorities and Clinical Commissioning Groups in Kent and Gloucestershire, to test out how a range of arts and cultural activities could become a more central feature of our local public services.
Improving physical health in Gloucestershire
The NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group has developed some exciting solutions to the challenges that established health services are struggling to meet. They’ve established nine projects that are applying arts and culture across a range of health conditions including cancer, mental health and diabetes.
One brilliant example is a bespoke choir that has been created for people with respiratory conditions such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis and asthma. These patients can be referred by specialist respiratory physiotherapists, following discharge from pulmonary rehabilitation programs and are designed to help support their recovery.
Better mental health services in Kent
In Kent, the County Council has developed a range of new services that include arts and cultural organisations alongside traditional public service providers.
Kent commissioned a £4 million community-based mental health service working with organisations like local Museums and Theatres, as well as smaller, informal arts and cultural groups, such as reading groups and dance classes.
The early insights from this work on mental health and wellbeing have shown that arts and cultural organisations have helped improve access to a better range of support for many in their communities. But changing the process behind how our services are commissioned is crucial to make this happen more widely.
Placing arts and culture at the heart of our services
It’s clear that arts and cultural organisations can make a unique, and effective contribution to our public services. But for us to benefit, local authorities need to make it easier for these organisations to be commissioned.
Our work has shown that it is possible for the public sector to change the commissioning and procurement processes that are currently in place, so that they can work with more arts and cultural organisations. Some of these solutions include:
Raising awareness about the value of arts and culture within local government and the NHS;
Building the capacity of arts and cultural organisations to bid for public sector work;
Building relationships with arts and cultural organisations, and engaging with this sector at a strategic level;
Changing procurement to better engage arts and cultural organisations;
Changing monitoring and evaluation approaches to focus more on outcomes.
Arts and cultural organisations have the potential to bring creativity, innovation, participation and well-being benefits to the population – all things our current local services need if they are to tackle the challenges they face.