Culture, creativity and heritage makes Torbay a better place in which to live, work, learn and visit. Torbay Culture was set up with support from Arts Council England to provide strategic leadership for the local culture sector, and progress the cultural strategy which is focused around people and place.
CULTURE, HEALTH AND WELLBEING
We are working with a growing range of commissioners and communities in Torbay to help residents lead healthier, happier lives. We have been testing new ways of building creative practices into the day-to-day work of other sectors, including the health sector, to help them meet their own objectives and to embed creativity into the lives of those who could benefit the most.
Our work began with the support of the Cultural Commissioning Locality Project. In a new phase of the development of creative commissioning for Torbay through the Great Place Scheme, we worked with health sector partners to identify a number of new pilot projects, designed to improve participants' physical and mental health and wellbeing.
We delivered:
‘Singing for Wellness’ choirs for people living with COPD
‘Best Foot Forward’ dance programme for mobility and falls prevention
Mental health and well-being projects for children and young people
Mental health and well-being projects for older people.
Our projects are designed not only to test new initiatives for Torbay’s residents but also to support and grow partnerships.
A key aim of Torbay’s cultural strategy is to harness the health and well-being benefits of culture. A growing amount of academic research proves the positive clinical and social outcomes culture can provide within both health and care pathways. Torbay has pioneer status for integrated health and social care, a respected and active champion in Healthwatch Torbay, a Community Development Trust committed to cultural activity, and a network of experienced local arts and health practitioners. This is a strong base from which to develop a strategic approach to culture, health and wellbeing here. We are keen to work with our partners to explore this, particularly around the prevention and self-care agenda.
The aims of these pilot projects were to:
Improve the physical and mental health and wellbeing of programme participants including reducing feelings of isolation
Identify new, cost-effective routes for health sector partners to deliver the New Model of Care through arts, culture and heritage, to support them to commission creative practitioners effectively
Develop commission-ready creative practitioners who have opportunities to deliver their work in the health sector.
The evaluation and analysis was published in the report Connections Between Culture, Health and Wellbeing in Torbay. Accompanying the report are a set of case studies covering the four programme areas. Download the report and case studies below:
We also created short films about the Singing for Wellness and Best Foot Forward projects which you can watch below:
Oversight of this programme was provided by the Joint Prevention Board. Key delivery partners included Torbay Culture and Arts Network (TCAN), Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, Torbay and South Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (now NHS Devon CCG), and Public Health Torbay. Artists leading the projects were:
‘Best Foot Forward’ Dance for Mobility and Falls Prevention - Dance in Devon
Singing for Wellness - Wren Music, Hugh Nankivell
Arts, Mental Health and Wellbeing for Children and Young People - Daisi, Doorstep Arts, Participate Arts, Sound Communities, Wren Music
Arts, Mental Health and Wellbeing for Older People - Promenade Promotions, Sound Communities
The work was possible thanks to investment by Arts Council England, the Health Foundation and Torbay Medical Research Fund; and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Arts Council as part of Torbay's Great Place Scheme.
This programme of work ran in phases:
Arts on Referral (delivered during 2016-18), moved into evaluation from summer 2018. Cat Radford was contracted to continue the strategic development of creative commissioning from 2018 through to the close of 2020. During this time we built on the earlier phase: building relationships and sharing learning with partners in the health sector, evaluation of lessons learnt, case studies, and a review of the changing policy context (2019) which resulted in the Connections Between Culture, Health & Wellbeing in Torbay report (2020).
During 2020 we commissioned a set of new projects co-designed by young people in Torbay in collaboration with Public Health and Imagine This partnership. Called Creative Transitions these projects were delivered during the cornonavirus pandemic, and were well received by participants and partners. Mary Schwarz conducted the independent evaluation and this can be accessed below.
““Emotional health and well-being are more about place than about services. The role that Torbay Culture plays in building communities, treating opportunities and addressing a sense of belonging is so important. We will continue to work with Torbay Culture to build community resourcefulness as well as delivering the focused work we are already doing, including to promote respiratory (lung) health and prevent falls through singing and dance. We look forward to seeing the evaluation of these specific projects so we can include this learning into future commissioning.”
– Dr Caroline Dimond, Director of Public Health Torbay”