Creating a Space for Practice and Policy to Come Together

As ACHWS develops it role in advocacy and policy influence, we need your practice experience, creative thinking and energy to make sure that we can continue to develop and nurture the positive relationships with government.

In February we held the first online ACHWS Advocacy & Policy Working Group conversation where we asked How Can ACHWS Positively Influence and Contribute to National Policy?

The members who joined the event identified three areas of concern to address.

• There is a lack of awareness of positive local creative interventions and the contribution they directly make to prevention/early intervention.
• There is a lack of a framework that helps join the dots, supporting work across disciplines and sectors.
• Constrains in public investment hinders development and disproportionately affects community, arts, third sector organisations.

It was clear that we need to support a positive ongoing dialogue that articulates local imaginative ways to address these concerns. As a starting point we will curate a series of conversations that raise greater awareness of the creative thinking and work being done in communities across Scotland.

We specifically will focus on creative practices that build bridges across sectors and offer positive solutions to those directly affected by health inequalities in a complex and challenging health and social care environment.

The series will run over the next over the next few months covering:

• Local Interventions – exploring place based and issue based approaches and the thinking and practices that address specific needs and builds bridges across sectors.
• Joining The Dots – exploring public sector driven networking and voluntary sector driven networking that brings together a range of partners to shape the narrative.
• Investment With A Difference – exploring collaborative commissioning by a HSCP and independent financial development by a SCIO.
• Future Thinking – looking at UK wide research on the role of creativity in tackling health inequalities and placing a duty on all to focus on positive outcomes.

Often, within the network you are already involved in taking these practical steps locally, making it happen, collaborating, innovating; whilst navigating complex relationships with local authorities, health & social care partnerships and regional health boards. At ACHWS we want to make sure that we can positively influence and contribute to the further practical development of these exciting policy intentions.

If you missed the conversation, please go to our YouTube channel and watch it and any of our other conversations that you have missed. Arts Culture Health & Wellbeing Scotland – YouTube

The open conversation was facilitated by Jan-Bert van den Berg, REALTIES Community Embedded Researcher at Artlink Edinburgh and the Lothians and Board Member of Arts Culture Health and Wellbeing Scotland.  He was joined at the start by Manira Ahmad, Chief Officer, Public Health Scotland. View it here.

Manira outline why public health matters, Scotland’s biggest challenges, the Population Health Framework, the need for cross collaboration and why it is clearer than ever that arts, culture, and community are not just “nice to have”, they’re vital to how we live well.

If you want to get more involved in the ACHWS Advocacy & Policy Working Group then email us at info@achws.org.

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