Creative Journeys Report 2019

Creative Journeys 11 consider the specific needs of individual residents; and ‘reciprocal relationships’ that value the contributions of residents, staff and family members in creating a sense of community. These issues are also pertinent for older people living in the community as the support provided through social relationships can be instrumental in maintaining independence, well-being and quality of life. The Campaign to End Loneliness (Bolton, 2012) has identified a range of interventions that aim to address loneliness and social isolation for older people predominantly in the community, including social and cultural group interventions and wider community engagement. For example, Pitkala et al. (2009) focused on social group interventions and found that participation in arts activities was beneficial. This message resonates with one of the other key messages from the APPG (2017) report, which states that the arts can “help meet major challenges facing health and social care”, specifically citing ageing, long-term conditions, loneliness and mental health (p.4 short report). This also fits well with the Government Loneliness Strategy, which foregrounds the importance of personal relationships and their impact on overall well-being (HM Government, 2018, p.7). In 2012, the Baring Foundation published a report that maps a huge variety of ways in which the arts are used to work in a participatory way with older people in the UK, and the personal and societal benefits of this (Cutler, 2012). They highlight the intrinsic value in engaging the talent, experience and enthusiasm of older people in the creative arts and the pursuit of cultural activities, consistently identifying benefits of feeling valued, creative expression, using skills and engaging with other older people. In terms of relational benefits, they found improvements to personal and immediate relationships (with family, friends, carers, and staff) and societal or broader relationships (community development and social capital). They conclude that creative arts and cultural activities contribute to the overall sense of well-being of older people, echoing other literature that highlights the positive impact of arts and culture on older people’s well-being in a range of care settings (Clift et al., 2009; Arts Council England, 2013; Bungay et al., 2014; Fraser, Bungay and Munn-Giddings, 2014). Despite this, they note a severe lack of support in terms of policy and funding for arts and cultural activities that engage older people. The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) (2013) recommends that older people in residential care have the opportunity to engage in meaningful activities, including social participation and engagement. In addition, the recent health and social care policy guidance for older people aged 65 and over specifically focused on social support - listing singing and creative activities as mechanisms to facilitate this (NICE, 2015). As such, the specific impact on social relationships as a mechanism for building community and enhancing well-being deserves further consideration and could have important implications for the potential of arts and culture to promote the social inclusion of older people living in care home settings, or socially isolated in the community. As an initial step before the data collection began we undertook an extensive scoping review of the existing literature to collate the current knowledge on the impact of participatory arts and cultural activities on social relationships in both care home and community settings to inform the framework and parameters of the study. The full review is available online at the Anglia Ruskin University Open Repository . Additionally, conceptual reviews focusing on different aspects of the literature have been published elsewhere (Dadswell et al., 2017; Wilson et al., forthcoming). The majority of the literature did not take social relationships as their primary focus, but focused on and foregrounded the impact of participatory arts on the