Case Study: Model for speeding up health system adoption of arts innovations

Introduction

This was an action research project focused on the area served by Bridgend West Primary Care Cluster. It ran from August 2021 to December 2022. The arts programme involved was Dance to Health, Aesop’s national falls prevention dance programme for older people. It tested the feasibility of developing a dance company-led model which could: 1. speed up the creation of long-term older people’s dance groups. 2. deliver health improvements to many more people and reduce health inequalities. 3. create employment and professional development opportunities for dance artists.

The Challenge

We wanted to explore faster health system adoption of arts innovations. Innovation adoption generally takes 17 years on average (Royal Society of Medicine Journal 2011). We also knew from the ‘Creative Health’ report that ‘The UK is still very far from realising more than a small modicum of the potential contribution of the arts to health and wellbeing.’ Dance to Health had already been working successfully in Swansea Bay since 2017. The main success factors where: 1. Professional dance artists gained the recognised falls prevention exercise qualification ‘Postural Stability Instructor’. 2. Dance to Health had an evidence-base of health improvement, effectiveness and cost effectiveness. 3. It had proved possible to establish long-term, financially sustainable Dance

The Approach

OUTPUTS AND ENGAGEMENT 4 new Dance to Health local groups were set up. They ran from October 2021 to December 2022. Participants were referred by Bridgend West GP Cluster, BAVO and staff at the venues: • Cornelly Community Centre: 25 registered. • St Theodores Church, Kenfig Hill: 8, all with complex health needs. • Bridgend Masonic Hall: 17 registered. • Trinity Methodist & United Reformed Church: 10 registered, all with learning difficulties. The Porthcawl group continued. Assistant Dance Artist, Emma Jenkins, was recruited and trained. She worked alongside Dance Artists, Lizzie Davies-Macmillan and Sian Rowlands. As the groups developed Dr Romilly Rees, Cluster Lead for Bridgend West GP Cluster, acknowledged that six new groups was over-ambitious, hence the reduction to four. Alongside this was research into social franchising, licensing and other partnership options for speeding up Dance to Health’s growth. TIMESCALE The project was originally planned to run 12 months from September 2021. We extended until the end of December 2022 to give ETC Dance more time to explore how the local groups could become financially sustainable. The Middlesex University report was received in June 2022. The project budget was £66,587, however, £59,938.31 was spent.

The Impact

The project tested the feasibility of developing a dance company-led model to do 3 things. The results were: 1. speed up the creation of long-term older people’s dance groups. ETC Dance set up 4 new groups within 4 months of the project’s start. The Porthcawl group was sustained (and it continues). They progressed towards a sustainable model, identifying partners who could contribute (e.g. Cwm Taf UHB, Bridgend West GP Cluster and Tanio) and the danger of local groups competing with each other for funding and volunteers. The parallel work by Middlesex University ruled out unviable options such as social franchising. 2. deliver health improvements to many more people and reduce health inequalities. Dance to Health already has a statistically significant evidence base for reducing falls, improving mental health and increasing physical activity. This was produced by Sheffield Hallam University. ETC Dance extended this to 60 older people. It also demonstrated that the Dance to Health model could be flexed to involve older people with learning difficulties. 3. create employment and professional development opportunities for dance artists. The project created employment opportunities for 3 dance artists. Emma Jenkins qualified as a Postural Stability Instructor.

Lessons Learned

The three most important lessons were: 1. There are dangers in a committee for each local group: competition for local funding; need for a high number of volunteer committee members; and Aesop’s involvement in labour-intensive management and quality assurance. 2. Significant community buy-in is essential for achieving a sustainable model. 3. Insufficient dance artist supply is a major risk as Dance to Health grows. The risk is greater in Wales given the decline of dance degrees. Local dance companies will be a vital source of dance

The Legacy

In December 2022, Aesop won an Innovate UK competition ‘Healthy Ageing – scaling social ventures’. This has 4 workstreams. 2 of these pick up on lessons learnt from this project: dance artist supply and local governance. There will be a three-year plan for ensuring dance artist supply keeps pace with Dance to Health’s growth. A local governance model based on branches covering local areas will be trialled in Wales (Swansea Bay UHB area) and England (Dudley Council area).

Website and Social Media Links

https://dancetohealth.org/

Contact Details

Charley Utton, Marketing, Communications and Events Manager charleyutton@ae-sop.org

Tags: Dance, Older people, Falls prevention, Bridgend, Cwm Taf

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