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Mayor of London’s Dementia Friendly Venues Charter

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Mayor of London’s Dementia Friendly Venues Charter

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100 venues accredited and welcoming more people living with dementia

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We know how important it is for people living with dementia to be able to continue doing the things they love, including getting out and about enjoying arts and creative activities.

In 2021, Mayor of London launched the Dementia Friendly Venues Charter, developed with Alzheimer's Society and Museum of London. The aim of this charter is to ensure that people living with dementia can fully access London's cultural offer.

Since then, a self-accreditation process has been created. This has enabled London's cultural venues - from libraries to museums, community centres and cinemas - to improve their access provision for people living with dementia and their carers.

This month, we're celebrating over 100 cultural venues accrediting via our charter! These include local libraries, cinemas and places of worship. As well as world-renowned venues such as Museum of London Docklands, Royal Albert Hall, Saatchi Gallery, Sadler's Wells, the Science Museum and the V&A.

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How London's cultural venues are becoming more accessible to those living with dementia.

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An interview with a creative health lead working within South East London ICS

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Flora: It feels important to support social prescribers in SEL to have the confidence to suggest cultural or creative options as part of their conversations with clients. There are two key needs to achieve this:

1. Ensuring social prescribers understand the value of cultural social prescribing themselves. We are exploring the following things:

supporting them to experience the cultural activities for themselves, so they can better understand what they bring individuals

encouraging attendance at cultural social prescribing training sessions (currently being delivered across SEL by Performing Medicine)

integrating of cultural social prescribing into social prescribers' initial training

2. Ensuring social prescribers know what creative programmes and activities are being offered across South East London by arts and voluntary sector partners. This also means supporting organisations delivering these programmes to connect to their local health networks, to create accessible pathways for referral.

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The power of cultural social prescribing for health

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At the GLA, we are testing what happens when we embed creative health champions in the NHS.

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Co-designing London Creative Health City - what we found out

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Co-designing London Creative Health City - what we found out

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From close listening at the policy design events, we identified principles to take this work forwards:

Build the Creative Health City from the ground up.

Improve commissioning routes.

Direct investment according to need.

Share knowledge and tools, evidence and evaluation.

Develop the creative health workforce.

Make creative health integral to the future of London.

We're delighted all this work has had extra momentum through the APPG Creative Health Review, published December 2023. This invites metropolitan mayors to "...support creative health and work in partnership with ICS leaders to deliver develop sustainable creative health infrastructure at scale, making best use of local assets".

It seems we are now moving towards a tipping point to reaching the goal. Through partnerships and collaboration, we're on the journey to build London Creative Health City, together. City Hall and our partners, and the many thousands involved in supporting Londoner's to thrive, continue to explore how to activate London's resources to meet this ambition.

To be updated on the news and development of London Creative Health City, join London Arts and Health's newsletter.

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Co-designing London as a Creative Health Capital City

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Throughout 2023, City Hall teamed up with Arts Council England and London Arts and Health to create and deliver a co-design process with Londoners interested in developing London as a Creative Health City.

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An Unconference: London Creative Health City: Building in Together

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An Unconference: London Creative Health City: Building in Together

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A blog about the co-design process and event to explore what London Creative Health City might look like.

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The following poem was written by all attendants in the event and edited by Arji Manuelpillai, the host and lead facilitator for the Unconference:

Some Days Are Special Days

Today was a day for praise and love, joy and rest
to share and learn, grow and connect.

Today was a day to let the words flow free
A day to find some time to listen.

Today was for helping London
find a way to heal, to change.

For realising we are not alone,
Together our strength is staggering.

Today was a day for transformation
through conversation.

Old ways of seeing new approaches,
new ways of growing, of implementing

Defining the goal, chasing the goal,
reaching for the goal, rebuilding the goal.

Today was a day for remembering
It's ok to play, work isn't always work.

I met an old boyfriend today,
hadn't seen him in ages, he looked so good.

Today was for being heard, thinking and feeling,
praising, inspiring, expressing our ideas

listening, noticing, digesting, caring
expanding, inspiring and thinking,

did I mention thinking?
critical thinking, analytical thinking,

thinking about how I love
the way you move from company to company

but we basically do the same thing.
We fight the good fight.

Today was there to help us remember
the why before committing to the how.

It was a day for cigs and booze
For spilling tea on a random man.

A day for dreaming and flying
For dreaming of flying, for flying a dream

That we can, some day,
Bun down Babylon.

Today was inspiring and moving
strange and weird

And u sat on my brand new glasses
But that was ok.

Because today was not about trying to be too much,
But just being a being that knows.

If we trust in our imagination
If we believe in our shared power

We can and we will build a city
Full of possibilities.

A city where creativity
paves a healthier London of the future.

Today was just a day
It's tomorrow where the change begins.

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London Creative Health City: Building It Together

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The power of culture to fuel Londoners' health and wellbeing

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Research Explorer The University of Manchester

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Overview

I am a Senior Lecturer in Drama and Arts Management and Director for Social Responsibility in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at the University of Manchester.

I am interested in the way theatre and performance engage people with ideas and how the arts more broadly affect society. This is reflected in my research into collaborations between artists, communities, health and care practitioners, policy-makers and researchers. It also influences my teaching about arts in health and education, activist performance, arts management and contemporary performance practice. A lot of my research has emerged from my experience of working with creative practitioners in a variety of contexts.

I am currently working on the Organisations of Hope project - an interdisciplinary, multi-organisational research project seeking to establish a creative health coalition to address health inequalities and inequities in Greater Manchester. I am also working with Contact, Manchester Art Gallery and other partners to develop a network exploring responses to trauma in the arts.

I have worked with Contact Theatre on their development of health and science programming. This work builds on my time as a board member of the theatre (2011-2018) helping to embed such themes within their work and draws on my book on Science in Performance. I also spent some time exploring the role of performance in developing understandings of dementia with Louise Wallwein, Jaydev Mistry, Manchester Camerata and Dr Helen Pusey. This resulted in the Dementia Voices project and the award-winning performance by Louise Wallwein. In the past I have worked on the role of theatre in science education with Theatre of Debate.

Before coming to Manchester, I worked at the charity The Wellcome Trust (2002-2009) where I developed a range of national and international programmes promoting public and community engagement with biomedical research. I have taught at Royal Holloway University of London and University of Klagenfurt (Austria) as well as managed and evaluated a number of arts and education projects across the UK and Europe. I have a BA in Modern Languages (Nottingham), MA in Text and Performance Studies (King's College London / Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), and a PhD in Drama (Royal Holloway University of London).

Research interests

Simon's current research focusses on the relationship between creative and cultural practices and health inequity. Much of this work is collaborative through the Organisations of Hope project and the GM Arts and Trauma network.

This builds on my previous work on the aesthetics and politics of science and health in performance. This work has ranged across science in contemporary theatre, experimental collaborations between scientists and performers, activist performance as a response to science, theatre in science education, and theatre as a context for engagement between communities, scientists and/or health professionals. My recent (2020) book Science in performance: theatre and the politics of engagement maps out some of this territory. I am continuing work in this area co-editing a Routledge Companion to Performance and Science with Paul Johnson and Adele Senior. I have also worked with Contact theatre and Theatre of Debate on producing health and science in the theatre.

I collaborated with colleagues in the School of Nursing (2015-2019) exploring how theatre and performance might offer new perspectives on mental health. This project involved collaborations with artists including Mad 'Ed Theatre, the vacuum cleaner, Manchester Camerata, Louise Wallwein and Jaydev Mistry.

In 2013-2015, I worked with Jenny Hughes on a project exploring the role of gesture in activist performance. This resulted in a blog, co-edited special issue of Contemporary Theatre Review, a website and a chapter in an edited collection on Citizen Media and Public Spaces.

Between 2002 and 2008, I promoted and supported a range of collaborations between scientists, education and artists. This work is documented in the Creative Encounters publication.

I have supervised PhD projects in theatre and drama in education, dance in the art gallery, performance and biotherapy, audience development and socially engaged arts practice. I would welcome PhD proposals that explore: relationships between creative practice, science and health; theatre or drama in health or education; activist performance; and some aspects of arts management.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

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I am a Senior Lecturer in Drama and Arts Management and Director for Social Responsibility in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at the University of Manchester. I am interested in the way theatre and performance engage people with ideas and how the arts more broadly affect society.

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Creative pathways to personal wellbeing

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Creative pathways to personal wellbeing

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» Creative pathways to personal wellbeing

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We have brought together evidence on how and why creativity supports wellbeing.

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Funded PhD Studentship in Dance, Communities and Wellbeing

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Funded PhD Studentship in Dance, Communities and Wellbeing

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The Centre for Health and Wellbeing across the Lifecourse at Brunel University London is offering a fully funded PhD studentship in partnership with New Adventures dance-theatre company to build a programme theory of wellbeing for New Adventures' community dance strategy related to the flagship production of Matthew Bourne's iconic Swan Lake, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2025. The research will identify the conditions and mechanisms by which community dance achieves its wellbeing outcomes and will build evidence of the impact of an extensive programme of movement and dance activity in different places with diverse participants across the UK. The proposed PhD will ensure the development of an evidence-led framework for supporting the values of New Adventures in ensuring wide accessibility for people in different places to watch adventurous performances, take part in creative movement projects and become part of the New Adventures family of performers, professional practitioners and participants.

Based in the College of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences the PhD is jointly funded with New Adventures and the studentship offers a full-time annual London rate stipend estimated at £21,237 plus Home tuition fees, for a maximum of 36 months.

The start date will be 1 October 2024.
Overview
The PhD studentship will involve participatory community dance methodologies across multiple sites in the UK and interviews with key stakeholders in community dance including strategic decision makers, dance venue managers, dance leaders and dance professionals. This will lead to the design and delivery of workshop activities to coproduce a programme theory of wellbeing or community dance.

The successful candidate will be supervised by an expert interdisciplinary team of researchers and who will provide full training for the research.

For informal discussions contact Professor Louise Mansfield ( louise.mansfield@brunel.ac.uk).

Eligibility

Candidates should have an undergraduate degree (first or upper second class) or equivalent qualification in dance, sport and exercise science or a related field. A masters qualification in a relevant area would be desirable. Experience in qualitative research in areas relating to physical activity, dance and/or community studies Is essential. Applicants who have not been awarded a degree by a university in the UK will be expected to demonstrate English language skills to IELTS 7.0 (minimum 6.5 in any section).

How to apply

If you wish to apply, please e-mail the following to chmls-pgr-officestaff@brunel.ac.uk by 19 August 2024.

An up-to-date CV.

A single-page A4 single-spaced personal statement describing why you are a suitable candidate (i.e. outlining your qualifications and skills)

One example of your academic writing (e.g. an essay, a section from a dissertation)

A summary of your teaching experience or your willingness to support teaching activities

Names and contact details for two academic referees

A copy of your highest degree certificate and transcript

A copy of your English language qualification, where applicable

Short-listed applicants will be required to attend an interview week commencing interview week commencing 2 September 2024. Shortlisted applicants will be instructed to submit a formal online application via Admissions.

For further information about how to apply, please contact the College of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences Postgraduate Research Office on chmls-pgr-officestaff@brunel.ac.uk.

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Funded PhD Studentship in Dance, Communities and Wellbeing

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Funded PhD Studentship in Dance, Communities and Wellbeing The Centre for Health and Wellbeing across the Lifecourse at Brunel University London is offering a

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Hosted by Thursday 26th September 2024 Cecil Sharp House, London The AHRC Everyday Creativity Research Network and About Everyday Creativity Creative Lives
The 2024 Everyday Creativity Conference is an opportunity to share understandings and ways of working with/for everyday creativity (EC). Our confirmed speakers include Dr Mark Taylor (University of Sheffield and Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre) speaking on inequalities in arts, culture and heritage audiences, and nominees for the 2024 Creative Lives Awards.

The event connects different sectors, disciplines and contexts, forging new paths forwards to support EC theory and practice. The 2024 conference is also a celebration of everyday creative practice, showcasing the achievements of groups and projects that provide creative activity for people of all ages and abilities across the UK and Ireland. It is aimed at: academics and postgraduate researchers from the social sciences, arts, humanities and beyond; creative practitioners (including craftspeople, creative writers, musicians comedians, entrepreneurs and others); healthcare professionals; and members of community/third sector organisations. We welcome proposals from all of these groups.
Session Submissions
EC is characterised by quotidian actions that are often understood in terms of little and mini 'c' creativity; the former focusing on observable creative actions/products and the latter on more fleeting interpretive and transformative aspects of thought. It incorporates a diverse range of immersive creative activities that millions of people engage in every day. Such activities are often removed from established hierarchies, economic models and notions of excellence, and enable participants to explore their creative potential, maintain their health and wellbeing, connect to others and to nature, learn and develop, and add meaning and purpose to their lives.

The conference explores these ideas under four themes:

The role of EC in enriching creative research methods (Lead: Dr Helen Johnson, University of Brighton)

EC, the home and placemaking. Including pandemic responses (Lead: Prof Owen Evans, Edge Hill University)

EC, health and wellbeing (Leads: Prof Louise Mansfield, Brunel University and Prof Norma Daykin, University of the West of England)

Arts, science and technology interfaces in EC (Lead: Prof Sonia Contera, University of Oxford)

Sessions can take the form of performances, workshops, presentations, discussions, debates, network events, panel discussions, or other knowledge/skill exchange activities. We are particularly keen to encourage innovative and creative forms of presentation, which break out of the 'chalk-and-talk' mode that typically dominates conferences, and to encourage submissions from groups who are under-represented at academic conferences. Contributions can be 20 or 40 minutes long, with longer slots reserved for more innovative and interactive formats. We aim to produce an edited book on everyday creativity following the event, and would welcome submissions for this from all conference presenters.

Session proposals should cover the following information:

The session title

Which of the four conference themes you are responding to

Your name/s, affiliation/s (if relevant) and a contact email address

The format/style of your presentation

The preferred length of your session (20 or 40 minutes)

In addition, please include one of the following to convey the content of your session and how it is relevant to the conference themes/focus:

A brief abstract (maximum 300 words)

A video or audio file (maximum 2 minutes)

1-3 images, plus captions/explanatory text of up to 100 words

A piece of creative prose or poetry (maximum 300 words)

Please submit your proposal by 17:00 on Wednesday 3rd July 2024, to: h.f.johnson@brighton.ac.uk

All submissions will be reviewed by the conference committee. We aim to have decisions back to all applicants by Wednesday 24 th July 2024. Please note that the conference fee of £50 is payable by all participants attending the conference, including those presenting. This includes lunch, refreshments and entry to all conference events. A bursary is available for reduced fees, to support low income participants without institutional support. To apply for this please email Helen Johnson at the address above detailing the reason you are applying for this.

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Call for Submissions for the 2024 Everyday Creativity Conference

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The 2024 Everyday Creativity Conference: Celebrating Practice, Exploring Legacies, and Forging New Paths Forwards Hosted by The AHRC Everyday Creativ...

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Connect with your regional champion to find out more!

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The Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance is a national organisation representing everyone who believes that cultural engagement can transform our health and wellbeing.

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A Referral Framework for Creative Health

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A Referral Framework for Creative Health

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Commissioned by the Culture and Public Health teams at Birmingham City Council, developed by Dr Rachel Marsden, Research Fellow in Creative-Public Health (NIHR/SPHR) r.e.m.marsden@bham.ac.uk

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Mobilising Community Assets Case Study Synthesis 

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Mobilising Community Assets Case Study Synthesis 

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Mobilising Community Assets Interim Report 

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Mobilising Community Assets Interim Report 

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The LOASCA study on older LGBTQ+ people and their social care needs

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The LOASCA study on older LGBTQ+ people and their social care needs

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Please do have a look at the project website as well as the SCIE resources.

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Do please have a look at our website re. events, research and resources.

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Steve is a senior lecturer in Social Work at the University of Manchester and is also the Creativity, Health & Wellbeing Research Lead for Creative Manchester. He has written about LGBTQ issues and social care/social work, with a focus on parenting (foster care/adoption) and also older LGBTQ people and social care needs. Steve is a qualified and registered social worker and, within research projects and through his role with Creative Manchester, he enjoys making use of creative and ethnographic methods.

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Zine Making workshop - Mapping your Creative Health story

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Purple Yellow Collage Activism Social Issues Zine

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Arts Council England: Creative Health and Wellbeing (2022)

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Arts Council England: Creative Health and Wellbeing (2022)

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By subscribing to our newsletter, you consent to receive updates, promotions, and other marketing materials from the Lab. Your data will be stored securely and only used for the purposes outlined in this statement. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in our emails.

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Focused on overlooked and underserved communities, the Jameel Arts & Health Lab coordinates and amplifies scientific research into the effectiveness of...

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The arts in public health policy: progress and opportunities

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There is a growing body of evidence indicating the arts have a role to play in promoting
good health and preventing and managing illness. WHO has called for governments to
take an intersectoral approach, both within and across traditional areas of policy,
to realise the potential of the arts for pub…

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The Greater Manchester Creative Health Strategy 

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The Greater Manchester Creative Health Strategy 

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Greater Manchester has committed to becoming a creative health city region. This means that GM will be the first city region in the world to realise the power of creativity, culture and heritage in addressing inequities and improving the health and wellbeing of its residents. (2022)

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Pathways to Health through Cultures of Neighbourhoods Final Report

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Pathways to Health through Cultures of Neighbourhoods Final Report

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The University of Southampton (2023)

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Culture, Health and Wellbeing: An online training course

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This online course will help you develop, deliver and evaluate the impact of arts and culture on health and wellbeing.

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UKRI-AHRC Mobilising community assets to tackle health inequalities programme

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UKRI-AHRC Mobilising community assets to tackle health inequalities programme

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AHRC is funding a programme called 'Mobilising community assets to tackle health inequalities', supported by:

The programme will take an interdisciplinary approach to funding research that aims to improve health inequalities in the UK, and is supported by a partnership with the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH).

The UK has many community assets that have the potential to have positive impacts on health and wellbeing in their local community, such as:

This programme will support projects that link and integrate such assets into healthcare systems with the aim of reducing health inequalities. The programme will take an interdisciplinary approach, and aims to bring together teams of expertise from remits across UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), building collaboration with non-academic partners such as:

health and social care

charities

lived experience researchers

policymakers

local authorities

community groups

The programme is guided by AHRC's Programme Director for Health Inequalities, Professor Helen Chatterjee. Researchers funded through this programme are expected to work cooperatively both with each other and Professor Chatterjee to increase the reach and impact of the work being funded through this programme.

The programme is formed of three phases, each of which has a funding opportunity with distinct aims.

Phase one

Projects began in January 2022. This phase funded 12 pilot projects up to £180,000 for 12 months. These projects focus on how to scale up small, local approaches for addressing health inequalities.

Phase two

Projects began in November 2022. In this phase, 16 consortia-building projects running for nine months were funded up to £250,000 each. These projects will facilitate cross-partner collaboration, incorporating relevant non-academic partners, including community groups and health system organisations.

Phase three

This is a £20 million funding opportunity that AHRC co-developed with colleagues across UKRI, the NCCH, and other relevant stakeholders.

The funding opportunity launched in April 2023. This phase will provide large-scale funding for the community, mobilising the functional consortia and community hubs established in phase two and operationalising the evidence from small-scale projects in phase one.

The phase three funding opportunity is open to applicants who did not receive phase one or two funding.

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Mobilising community assets to tackle health inequalities

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This programme aims to use local cultural and natural assets and activities to support improvements in health inequalities in the UK

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Organisations of Hope - illustrated notes from creative workshops with older adults.

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Organisations of Hope - illustrated notes from creative workshops with older adults.

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Organisations of Hope - illustrated notes from creative workshops with children and young people

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Organisations of Hope - illustrated notes from creative workshops with children and young people

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The University of Manchester 2023.

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Creative Health in Communities Report (2023) The University of Huddersfield.

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Creative Health in Communities Report (2023) The University of Huddersfield.

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Introduce yourself! Tell us more about yourself and your interest in creative health research here

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Introduce yourself! Tell us more about yourself and your interest in creative health research here

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*This is a public discussion board so please don't add anything you aren't happy to be publicly available!

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The National Centre for Creative Health and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing's Creative Health Review: How Policy Can Embrace Creative Health highlights the potential for creative health to help tackle pressing issues in health and social care and more widely. The Review has gathered evidence that shows the benefits of creative health in relation to major current challenges, and examples of where this is already working in practice.

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The National Centre for Creative Health will advance good practice and research, inform policy and promote collaboration, helping foster the conditions for creative health to be integral to health and social care and wider systems.

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Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance

The Creative Health Quality Framework is a ground-breaking tool that clearly articulates what “good” looks like for creative and cultural initiatives that aim to support people’s health and wellbeing.

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The Creative Health Quality Framework is a ground-breaking tool that clearly articulates what “good” looks like for creative and cultural initiatives that aim to support people’s health and wellbeing. The Creative Health Quality Framework consists of a set of downloadable PDF resources based around…

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Creative Health at The University of Manchester

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Creative Health at The University of Manchester

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Event overview and background

This one-day symposium aims to bring together people interested in creative health research and its broader intersection with practice and policy.

Since the publication of Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing in 2017 there has been a significant development of practice, policy and research around the concept of creative health.

At The University of Manchester we have been exploring the research landscape around creative health, beginning to map research agendas and identifying support for interdisciplinary networking both internally and externally to further develop a framework for creative health research.

This built on our collaborative research project Organisations of Hope: Building a Creative Health Consortium in Greater Manchester (2022/2023) in which we mapped creative health activity in the city region as part of phase 2 of the UKRI Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities research programme.

For more information on this research agenda please contact

Dr Simon Parry - simon.parry@manchester.ac.uk or Dr Angela Whitecross - angela.whitecross@manchester.ac.uk who have been developing this work.

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27 June 2024: 10.30 - 5.30pm

10.30-11.00 : Arrival, registration, tea and coffee

11.00-11.15:   Introduction and welcome: Dr Simon Parry

11.15-12.15:     Panel 1: Exploring the research landscape in creativity, health and wellbeing.

Chair: Dr Steve Hicks

Dr Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt

Professor Louise Mansfield

Dr Hannah Waterson

12.15 - 1.00pm: Zine Making Workshop led by Domenique Brewers - Your understanding and experience of creative health in research, practice and policy

1 - 1.45pm: Lunch (provided)

1.45-2.45pm: Panel 2: Using creative methods to address inequalities in health and social research

Chair: Prof Stephanie Snow

Dr Sarah Skyrme

Dr Stephen Hicks

Dr Julian Hargreaves

Dr Patsy Irizar

2.45-3pm - Comfort Break

3pm - 4pm - Panel 3: Embedding Creative Health Research in practice and policy

Chair: Dr Simon Parry

Professor Joanna Soafer

Professor Chris Day

Dr Nic Stenberg

Julie McCarthy

4pm - 4.30pm

Plenary Session - So what and what next?

4.30pm- 5.30pm

Networking drinks reception

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Venue Details: Core Technology Facility, The University of Manchester

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Venue Details: Core Technology Facility, The University of Manchester

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Nic is School Director for Executive Education at the University of Huddersfield. Before joining the university she worked in consultancy for over twenty years,  managing and contributing to a range of UK-based projects in the financial, retail, health and education sectors.

As a Chartered Psychologist, Nic’s research has focused on chronic condition management and wellbeing within organisations and communities.  Over the past few years, she has worked on several wellbeing-related projects around physical activity, sleep management, resilience coaching and financial wellbeing.   In 2023, she was part of the University of Huddersfield’s research team delivering a creative health action-research project across West Yorkshire, funded by AHRC’s Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities programme. Along with colleagues at the University and partners in West Yorkshire, she is now working on a project to build on this work and establish a creative health research hub in the region.

More information about the AHRC Phase 2 project can be accessed here

https://research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/cacs/projects/creatingchange/

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University of Huddersfield Research Portal

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Research Degree Supervision

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Last updated 18th April 2024

Biography

Nicola joined the University in June 2019, having worked in the fields of training and development and consultancy for over twenty years. Previously a Company Director, Nicola managed and contributed to a wide range of UK-based consultancy projects, specialising in impact measurement, stakeholder engagement and partnership working. Her clients included government bodies, national charities, local authorities, research foundations and national think-tanks.

Nicola completed her Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology with Staffordshire University in 2019 and was awarded Chartered Psychologist status in January 2020. Her research has focused on the broader determinants of health and wellbeing, in particular psychosocial influences. She has investigated chronic condition management and wellbeing and resilience within organisational and community contexts and has been both PI and Co-I on externally funded research projects concerned with phsical activity promotion and creative health.

Nicola is Director of Executive Education in the School of Business, Educaiton and Law. In this role, she is responsible for providing strategic and academic leadership for the School's professional development portfolio. She regularly talks to business audiences about promoting wellbeing and she also uses her expertise to contribute to the School's consultancy profile.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

Research Expertise and Interests

Self-Management

Personal Autonomy

Social Movements

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Percy-Smith, B. , Towns-Andrews, L. , Bailey, R. , Stenberg, N. , Doyle, M. , Harris, E. & Booth-Kurpnieks, C.

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Project: Research

Percy-Smith, B. , Bailey, R. , Stenberg, N. , Booth-Kurpnieks, C. , Munt, D., McQuillan, D. & Towns-Andrews, L. , , (Unpublished) 23 p.

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If you are interested in studying for a PhD in this research subject area click here For more details about the research topics, expertise and interests of this academic, click on the fingerprint icon 2 from 37 citations Last updated 18th April 2024 Nicola joined the University in June 2019, having worked in the fields of training and development and consultancy for over twenty years.

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Joanna Sofaer is a Professor of Archaeology at the University of Southampton, Co-Director of the Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities (SIAH), Director of Archaeology for the Creative Industries, and was Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) Knowledge Exchange and Impact Fellow (2017-2023). She works at the intersection between arts, humanities and public health. Current research focuses on the role of cultural assets in supporting health and wellbeing, working in partnership with communities, health professionals, the third sector and cultural organisations. She is PI for the UKRI-funded project Pathways to Health Through Cultures of Neighbourhoods and PI for Heritage and Wellbeing for NHS Staff (HerWellNHS) funded by Historic England in collaboration with Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust. She works with the National Trust on the Heritage Perception and Wellbeing project and led Places of Joy: Heritage After Lockdown. Joanna is also interested in the past as inspiration for contemporary creative practice, and creativity in material culture. She has led and partnered on several transnational European projects including the HERA-funded project Creativity and Craft Production in Middle and Late Bronze Age Europe.

What I will be speaking about

I’d like to touch on two of my current projects: Pathways to Health through Cultures of Neighbourhoods and Heritage and Wellbeing for NHS Staff. Each explores different forms of cultural engagement and responds to a distinct policy context but have in common an emphasis on the agency of people. A focus on agency (vs dependency) supports sustainability and upscale.

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Research

Research groups

Research interests

The role of cultural and community assets in health and wellbeing

The relationship between heritage and wellbeing

The social value of archaeology

The past as inspiration for contemporary creative practice

Creativity in prehistoric material culture, particularly in the Bronze Age

Current research

Research projects

Completed projects

Sponsor: European Research Council

Sponsor: Arts & Humanities Research Council

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Professor Joanna Sofaer is a Professor of Archaeology at the University of Southampton

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I am a cis gendered gay man. I live in central London with my husband. We have an adult son and daughter. I was attracted to the role of co-researcher because it provided opportunities to reflect on my own life experience, enhance my understanding and contribute in a meaningful way to developing our knowledge in the field of care for our older LGBTQ people.

I qualified as a physiotherapist in 1983 moving later in to higher education as a lecturer-practitioner then lecturer and course leader. In my later years in H.E. I worked in educational development supporting learning and teaching quality across disciplines. My Doctoral research focused on student learning as participation in professional practice.

I accessed the co-researcher opportunity via my voluntary work with ‘Opening Doors London’, a charity whose mission was to support LGBTQ+ people over 50 to live happy, healthy and independent lives, free from loneliness, isolation, prejudice and discrimination. I supported the co-development and delivery of training for staff in the health, social care, and housing sectors to help them better understand and support the needs of older LGBTQ+ people who access their services.

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Dr Patsy Irizar is a Simon Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of ethnic minority people, centred around the roles of structural and institutional racism and racial discrimination. Patsy is using the novel Evidence for Equality National Survey (EVENS, https://www.evensurvey.co.uk/) to understand whether people from ethnic minority groups were more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety then White British people during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is exploring the ways in which racism and racial discrimination contribute to poor mental health, through direct and indirect pathways.

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Research Explorer The University of Manchester

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Overview

I joined the Department of Sociology at the University of Manchester in August 2021, after completing my PhD at the University of Liverpool. I joined the Sociology department as a Research Associate for the Centre on the Dyanmics of Ethnicity (CoDE), to investigate ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 health outcomes. I am now continuing this work through my Simon Fellowship, to investigate the impact of the pandemic on mental health among ethnic minority people. My wider research interests include the relationship between alcohol use and mental health (particularly in the context of trauma exposure); improving treatment pathways for co-occurring alcohol use and mental health; and identifying occupational groups at risk of problematic alcohol use and poor mental health. I utilise both quantitative and qualitative methods and analysis in my research.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

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I joined the Department of Sociology at the University of Manchester in August 2021, after completing my PhD at the University of Liverpool. I joined the Sociology department as a Research Associate for the Centre on the Dyanmics of Ethnicity (CoDE), to investigate ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 health outcomes.

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Dr Sarah Skyrme is a Research Associate in Health Services Research at The University of Manchester. Sarah be talking about her lived experience of having had hepatitis C, a stigmatised condition that can mean patients are cautious about disclosing their condition to others and may fail to seek help and support. She will be showing a very short animation ‘Seeing the patient’, which she developed with an animator, which was created to help clinicians and others understand how to talk to and with patients.

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Social researcher with a particular interest in health, illness experience and marginalised identities.

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Julie McCarthy is Strategic Lead for Creative Health at Greater Manchester Integrated Care leading on GM’s Creative Health Strategy and ambition to become the world’s first Creative Health City Region with culture and creativity embedded across health and social care.

Julie was formally manager of Great Place GM, a programme to evidence the contribution of culture to the delivery of local government priorities. Before this, she developed the UK's only dedicated arts and mental health venue for young people; The Horsfall at 42nd Street.

In 2022 Julie was voted one of the 50 most influential neurodivergent women in the UK.

@artymccarthy

Julie will be speaking about research collaborations with the University of Manchester, particularly the impact of the Organisations of Hope project which was funded through UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) as part of phase 2 of their mobilising community assets to tackle health inequalities programme.

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Dr Stephen Hicks is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at The University of Manchester and strategic lead Creative Manchester's Health, Care and Wellbeing strand.

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Research Explorer The University of Manchester

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Overview

Senior Lecturer in Social Work.

'Creativity, Health and Wellbeing' Research Lead for Creative Manchester

Member of the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives

Course Unit Lead: 'Foundations of Research' (MA Social Work); 'Dissertation' (MA Social Work).

Biography

Before qualifying as a social worker, I worked in community mental health services, initially for a voluntary organisation and then for Manchester City Council Social Services. After studying for an MA and Diploma in Social Work at Manchester University, I worked for the Manchester Family Service Unit as a social worker for children and their families/carers. This included child protection and preventative casework; comprehensive assessments for cases in legal proceedings; direct work and play therapy with children; groupwork with service users, parents and young children; and practice teaching social work students. At this time, I also studied for a PhD in Applied Social Science at Lancaster University, looking at the social work assessment of lesbian and gay people who applied to foster or adopt children.

I also did voluntary work for Manchester Aidsline/George House Trust as a counsellor and 'buddy'/befriender, for the Albert Kennedy Trust (working with young, homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people) as a manager and social work supervisor, and was a founder member and Chair of the Northern Support Group (1994-2010) for lesbian, gay and bisexual people who were involved in fostering or adopting children. For about 3 years, I was also a registered foster carer. I now do voluntary outreach work with young men and trans people who are homeless, sex workers or both for The Men's Room (Manchester).

My first post in a university was as a part-time social work tutor for MA students at Manchester University. I then worked as a lecturer/senior lecturer in Applied Community Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University, as a senior lecturer in Social Work at the University of Central Lancashire, and as a senior lecturer and then a reader in Nursing, Midwifery & Social Work at the University of Salford. I have taught qualifying and post-qualifying social work at both BA and MA levels, as well as professional doctorate and PhD students. I have also led Master's degree courses in Child Care & Family Practice, Child Care & Mental Health and Comparative Safeguarding Studies.

Research interests

LOASCA: Lgbtq+ Older Adult Social Care Assessment study:
National Institute of Health Research, School for Social Care Research (£270,000) September 2021 - August 2023 (Universities of Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol with Opening Doors London).
This cross-sectional mixed-methods study employs a multiple site case study approach to improve understanding of: A) how social care workers engage with issues of SOGI when assessing older LGBTQ+ people with care and support needs and; B) how these service users experience and receive assessments. The study is informed by an advisory group which includes older LGBTQ+ people who use social care services, service providers, and representatives from professional regulators and support organisations including Safe Ageing No Discrimination, Birmingham LGBT, Opening Doors London and Social Care Institute for Excellence.

Community, Atmosphere and Belonging: Along with Vanessa May (Sociology), Camilla Lewis (Sociology and Anthropology), Sandra Costa Santos and Nadia Bertolino (Architecture, University of Northumbria), I worked on a 2 year, Arts & Humanities Research Council funded project, "Place and Belonging: What can we learn from Claremont Court housing scheme?" This project, based at Claremont Court, an early 1960s modernist social housing development, designed by Sir Basil Spence, considered place, space, belonging, atmosphere and welfare in a mixed housing project, and worked with local residents and the Residents' Committee to consider how people felt about the atmosphere and community where they live, and what contributes to a sense of belonging and welfare in a locality. Our monograph, Home and Community: Lessons from a Modernist Housing Scheme was published by Routledge in 2018.

LGBT Parenting: I have carried out research on lesbian and gay foster care and adoption, and on LGBT parenting. I have published widely in this field, and also wrote Manchester City Council's (2007) practice guidance on assessing lesbian and gay applicants in foster care or adoption. My book, Lesbian, Gay & Queer Parenting: Families, Intimacies, Genealogies was published in the Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family & Intimate Life series in 2011, and with Janet McDermott I published a new, revised edition of Lesbian and Gay Fostering and Adoption in 2018.

Sexuality and Social Welfare: I have also written on aspects of theorizing sexuality in social work and welfare.

Child Death and Maltreatment: From 2000-2004, with Corinne May-Chahal and Jo Tomlinson, I carried out an NSPCC nationally-funded study on the relationship between child death and maltreatment. The NSPCC published our full and summary reports in 2004 (see publications).

Teaching

Memberships of committees and professional bodies

Qualified social worker registered with the Health & Care Professions Council (SW94600). http://www.hcpc-uk.org

Member of the JUC-SWEC Research Sub-Committee https://www.juc.ac.uk/social-work-education-committee/sub-committees/research/

Member of the British Sociological Association (BSA).

Editorial board member:
Families, Relationships & Societies Australian Social Work Intersectionalities: A Global Journal of Social Work Analysis, Research, Polity, & Practice Psychology & Sexuality

Methodological knowledge

I am a qualitative researcher and I have specialisms in:

interview-based research

observational and ethnographic methods (including institutional ethnography)

discourse analytic approaches

I am also very interested in feminist, queer, interactionist and anti-racist research approaches.

I have supervised doctoral students in the following areas:

transgender people and social work/welfare.

family mediation discourses.

men and domestic partner abuse.

children as interpreters in social work services.

professional identity and the approved mental health practitioner role, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.

hearing parents' understandings of outcomes for Deaf children and young people.

ethnographic studies of: child protection services in UK/Belgium; research ethics committees and questions of capacity; and the culture of a radiography department.

Qualifications

PhD Applied Social Science, University of Lancaster, 1999

Diploma in Social Work, University of Manchester/CCETSW, 1993

MA (with Distinction) Economic & Social Studies, University of Manchester, 1993

Counselling Skills Certificate (level II), North West Regional Association of Education Authorities , 1991

BA (Hons) Music & English, University of Birmingham, 1987

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms

Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing

Healthier Futures

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Senior Lecturer in Social Work. 'Creativity, Health and Wellbeing' Research Lead for Creative Manchester Member of the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives Course Unit Lead: 'Foundations of Research' (MA Social Work); 'Dissertation' (MA Social Work). Before qualifying as a social worker, I worked in community mental health services, initially for a voluntary organisation and then for Manchester City Council Social Services.

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Chris Dayson is Professor of Voluntary Action, Health and Wellbeing at Sheffield Hallam University.

Chris will be speaking about his new three-year £2.1m project on creative health and community assets funded through UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) as part of their mobilising community assets to tackle health inequalities programme.

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Christopher Dayson | Sheffield Hallam University

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Staff profile for Christopher Dayson, Associate Professor at Sheffield Hallam University

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Dr Hannah Waterson will be speaking about her role as Research and Policy Manager at the National Centre for Creative Health where she promotes evidence-based policy and practice, helping foster the conditions for creative health to be integral to health and social care and wider systems.

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Hannah is Research and Policy Manager at the National Centre for Creative Health where she promotes evidence-based policy and practice, helping foster the conditions for creative health to be integral to health and social care and wider systems.

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Summary

Career History

Louise Mansfield is Professor of Sport, Health and Social Sciences and Research Lead for Welfare, Health and Wellbeing in the Institute of Environment, Health and Societies. Her research focuses on the relationship between sport, physical activity and public health and wellbeing. She is interested in partnership and community approaches in sport and physical activity and issues of health, wellbeing, inequality and diversity. She has led research projects for the Department of Health, Youth Sport Trust, sportscotland, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, Macmillan Cancer Support, Public Health England and Sport England. She sits on the editorial boards for Leisure Studies, Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health and the International Review for the Sociology of Sport and is Managing Editor of Annals of Leisure Research. Louise is known for is known for developing evidence to inform policy and practice.

Qualifications

PhD, PGCE, BSc

Responsibility

Louise is Vice Dean for Research (CHMLS), Director of the Centre for Health and Wellbeing across the Lifecourse (CHWL) and Associate Director of the ESRC Grand Union Doctoral Training Programme (a collaboration between Brunel, Oxford and the Open University).

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Professor Louise Mansfield | Brunel University London

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Career History Louise Mansfield&nbsp;is Professor&nbsp;of Sport, Health and Social Sciences and Research Lead for Welfare, Health and Wellbeing in the Institute of Environment, Health and Societies

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Rebecca is a researcher and consultant in creative health and cultural policy, author of the Greater Manchester Creative Health Strategy’

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During 2023, the Greater London Authority, Arts Council England and London Arts and Health asked more than 500 Londoners to initiate, build and test a model for the capital to become a Creative Health City. I evaluated this process and offered a series of reflections and recommendations.

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Creative Health Research and Consultancy Creative health is a way of thinking and working that acknowledges the health and wellbeing benefits of being creative and engaging with culture and heritage. Dr Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt has unparalleled knowledge of creative health at the intersection between practice, policy and evidence.

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The National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) has worked in partnership with NHS England Personalised Care Team and Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) in Gloucestershire; Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin; Suffolk and North East Essex; and West Yorkshire, to develop this toolkit to support other ICSs to embed creative health in their systems.

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How you can use the toolkit

The toolkit considers the enablers and barriers and is structured so as to illustrate how systems can deliver against the forthcoming NHS England Maturity Matrix for Social Prescribing, with reference to five domains: Leadership, Strategy & Governance; Planning & Commissioning; Workforce Development; Digital & Technology; and Evidence & Impact.

The toolkit will support systems to work with the assets in their communities and to develop their own approach. The aim of the tool kit is to embed the benefits of creativity in all health and social care systems, from integrated care system planning to delivery by grass roots organisations. It will support commissioners, link workers and the voluntary community social enterprise sector to work collaboratively and deliver better health outcomes for communities and individuals.

The toolkit includes short illustrative examples, drawn from the four systems but also from other places around England. We would like the toolkit to be iterative and welcome your suggestions for examples which might be of interest to other systems. You can submit illustrative examples here.

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The toolkit considers the enablers and barriers and is structured so as to illustrate how systems can deliver against the forthcoming NHS England Maturity Matrix for Social Prescribing, with reference to five domains: Leadership, Strategy & Governance; Planning & Commissioning; Workforce Development; Digital & Technology; and Evidence & Impact.