How arts and cultural organisations support health outcomes through commissioned services
Kent County Council
Laura’s role at Kent County Council (KCC) initially had a regeneration focus, working with arts and cultural organisations and individual artists, along with strategic bodies and education institutions, to develop partnership arts and heritage programmes. The role evolved to focus primarily on a culture, health and wellbeing agenda where she fundraised for and managed a series of cross-sector projects to embed arts and culture into commissioned health and social care services.
In 2013 Laura set up and managed a partnership between the Culture and Public Health teams at KCC, Royal Opera House Bridge, Artswork and MB Associates to develop a year-long programme to help the culture sector understand public sector commissioning and the role they could play in it. Six arts and health partnerships went through the commissioning cycle with support and guidance, delivering young people’s creative mental health projects.
This led to establishing a cross service working group and a successful bid to become one of only two national partners on the ACE-funded Cultural Commissioning Programme. Working with think tank New Economics Foundation this work fundamentally changed the way the council commissioned services to be more inclusive of smaller and creative organisations and developed ongoing partnerships between arts organisations and the VCSE.
Read the report here: The Art of Commissioning