Full Report 49 done in the home before, the value of which was not always recognised or appreciated. Developing a trusting relationship was vital in allowing for meaningful collaboration between artists and care home staff. However, it was at times challenging for artists to gain the trust of care home staff and managers, which could create barriers to achieving impact from the residency. …it requires a huge amount of investment and trust from the staff. I don’t think we’ve fully achieved that yet… We have with a few people but the level of trust and investment in the project is a huge challenge. Arts organisation pre-residency Artists stressed that building trusting and collaborative relationships took time. This could sometimes cause friction, for example one arts organisation wanted to spend more time in the home but there were concerns over risk management and resourcing in terms of care home staff time. Being ‘present’ in homes to build relationships and shared understandings with care home staff, to get to know and build relationships with residents, and to build relationships with each other as artists, was essential for achieving impact through the residency. [Building] trust…time for me is always a huge part of that. You can’t expect to do that over Zoom...over a cup of tea for an hour. That comes with time, and little by little…[care home staff] noticed…we took the time with individual residents. So that allowed them to go, “We trust these people… as humans. We trust them with the care of our residents…that what they’re doing is of value.” Arts organisation post-residency Communication was also essential for building trust and relationships. Communication within sessions was good, but maintaining contact between sessions was more difficult, particularly during the pandemic when both arts and care sectors were under huge strains. Artists and care home staff reflected on the need to communicate with each other in a direct and clear way to get the most out the relationship, and ultimately the residency. We realised…if we leave too much openness in our communication and ideas as to what to do next then nothing happens and they’re busy…. So…we need just to say, “This is the plan and we will come and do this, this is how we’re changing it and this is how we’re extending it.” Then they say, “Great”… or they say, “No, no you can’t have the staff.” Arts organisation pre-residency Artists having a key point of contact within each care home, and Magic Me having a key point of contact within Excelcare head office, was a facilitator to maintaining regular communication. However, there were significant changes in staffing during the ARCH programme across arts organisations, care homes, Excelcare and Magic Me, which inhibited sustained communication and eroded relationships. For example, one arts organisation and one care home had a completely new team once the residency was able to begin, and only one care home had the same Care Home Manager throughout. I think we were really unlucky with covid…We started to build a really good relationship with [artist], and then the whole world shut down. And we almost had to rebuild it again, when the world opened up again. Care home post-residency
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