Framework to support creative health projects

A new framework to support best practice in creative health projects has been published by the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance (CWHA).

The tool has been designed to provide everyone involved in creative health – including creative and cultural organisations, freelance practitioners, educators, policy makers, funders and commissioners, and partners in the health, social care and community sectors – a set of principles and actions to ensure arts and culture initiatives that support people’s health experiences and outcomes meet the desired outcomes.

The Creative Health Quality Framework, funded by Arts Council England, has been developed by creative health consultant Jane Willis in collaboration with over 200 people including artists, participants, health commissioners and researchers.

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Its publication is the culmination of stage one of the project to build the framework that began in May 2022.

A press release from CHWA said the framework “rests on the idea that quality is a shared responsibility held by everyone involved in creative health”.

“This is not about defining or accrediting practice, but about creating greater clarity and consensus around a shared concept of good.”

CHWA non-Executive Director Deborah Munt added: “The framework represents a mature, nuanced and flexible way for us to consider what quality is really made up of and how we can create the best possible offers and experiences, and the impacts that matter most.”

“It gives us a practical process for developing shared responsibility – within partnership and across sectors – and an understanding about how we each need to contribute.”

Quality principles

The framework is based upon eight Creative Health Quality Principles which CWHA says collectively drive quality and good practice, leading to improvements in participant experience and outcomes.

CWHA says the eight principles – person-centred, equitable, safe, creative, collaborative, realistic, reflective and sustainable – will be applied in different ways according to the context, aims, scale and duration of a project or programme.

Each of the eight principles includes specific stakeholder recommendations for adopting and embodying them.

Douglas Noble, Strategic Director of Adult Social Care and Healthcare for Live Music Now, said the principles “have many highly practical applications”.

“Focusing on a person-centred approach, for example, will mean we start to build trust and relationships at an early stage; and ensuring we are sustainable means we can really develop a long-term culture of musical care in health and care settings,” he explained.

Quality cycle

The framework also introduces a five-step quality cycle outlining how stakeholders should work together to deliver the Creative Health Quality Principles.

The five steps – developing your idea, building strong foundations, making detailed plans, delivering the work and learning from the work – are displayed in a continuous cycle to outline the learning and development process.

Both the principles and cycle are brought together in a Quality Framework Spreadsheet available on CHWA’s website.

Anna Woolf, Director of London Arts and Health, said: “This document will help us, as creative organisations, feel a sense of validation in the ways in which we work. In applying the Quality Principles to our work, it will help us strengthen and solidify our values and approaches.”

The framework is set to undergo piloting and evaluation work, after which it will be reviewed and updated.

It is anticipated to be reviewed and updated every three years to support the “ever-evolving sector”.

To coincide with the launch, CHWA is hosting a series of online events and a face-to-face workshop to familiarise those working on creative health projects with the framework.