This report evaluates the “Creativity in Care” programme, which was delivered by City Arts (Nottingham) and commissioned by Nottinghamshire County Council. The programme built on a premise of creatively exploring ‘whole’ care home environments and investigating how to develop approaches that best respond to the individual needs of older people.

This strand of work set out to establish models of working that improved engagement of older people in arts activities whilst also establishing a structure for supporting Activity Co-ordinators in delivering arts activities more confidently in residential care settings. The subsequent project design was informed by a number of training and consultation sessions with Activity Co-ordinators that took place prior to and during the artist residency at Eastgate Care.

The main aims of the programme were to explore creative and sustainable approaches to promote the well-being outcomes for older people in residential care, supporting their physical, social and emotional needs.

This was achieved by:

• Delivering an artist’s residency in partnership with a Nottinghamshire residential care home
• Providing support and guidance for the City Arts young creative apprentice who assisted the project
• Providing mentoring opportunities for Activity Coordinators through one to one support with an artist to assist with planning, delivery and evaluation of a creative intervention in their workplace
• Organising a series of training events for Activity Coordinators to offer stimulus for new creative ideas, opportunities for sharing and to prompt discussion
• Reporting and disseminating the findings from the project.

The report reviews the outcomes of the artist residency, creative mentoring and training and sets out recommendations based on the findings in order to inform future work.

Duncan, K., Wheeler, J. (2014) Creativity in Care. Nottingham: City Arts