Policy

In a speech at the King’s Fund on 6 November, Matt Hancock focused heavily on the role of creativity and culture in social prescribing and across the health spectrum.

Acknowledging the work of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing, he said:

The British Council, Bozar and the European Cultural Foundation have produced a series of recommendations around Brexit, based on a workshop held in late September with over 60 UK and EU leaders from across the creative industries. The recommendations are aimed at the UK government and the EU itself. The workshop focused on questions about mobility, funding and the law.

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The Care Quality Commission has published its annual summary of the State of Care. Tom Trenholm, Chief Executive of the CQC, describes a "story of contrasts" that assesses "both the resilience and the potential vulnerability" of the heath and care sectors, but also describes the risk of 'care injustice'.

The Health Foundation is to establish a new Health and Social Care Sustainability Research Centre to develop long-term thinking about health services in the UK. 

The Centre will provide independent projections, research and analysis with a network of academic partners and expects to provide around £10 million of funding over the next five years through an open and transparent commissioning process in 2019.

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A new review by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation suggests that short-term funding is impacting arts charities' ability to plan. It also points to the fact that statutory grants tend to stay at the same level, and do not keep up with demand for services or inflation. The review suggests that government budget reductions have worsened inequaiity in terms of cultural access across the UK.

The review is based on assessments of 450 grants awarded throgh six different PHF funds. 

The new strategy, launched in August, follows the 2017 Industrial Strategy, and outlines what it describes as the "key foundations of social value: people, places and the public, private and social sectors".

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A new memorandum of understanding has been signed by Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Foundation to support recommendations from the Mendoza Review - which states that the challenges faced by museums require a more joined-up approach between DCMS, Arts Council England and HLF.

The two organisations have said that they will

With social prescribing high on the new Secretary of State for Health's agenda, the 2nd International Social Prescribing Network Conference will look at implementation and measurement, as well as the impact we already know about on patients.
 

The Arts and Humanities Research Council is funding the development of nine "creative clusters" across the country, and a new Policy and Evidence Centre led by NESTA. Part of the government's Industrial Strategy, the clusters and Centre will be research and development hubs to bring universities and the creative industries together to support the cultural sector.

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To kick-start the autumn, LAHF has commissioned a series of blogs about the future of arts and health which we will be publishing daily over the next 2 weeks. The blogs, from leading practitioners working across the spectrum of creativity and wellbeing ask where this work is heading and what challenges and opportunities might open up in the year ahead. The blog series will begin on Monday 10th September and a new blog will be published each weekday until 21st September.