Social Prescribing Day on 14 March promotes support for people’s wellbeing through non-medical interventions based on social interaction and connection. NHS England use a standardised social prescribing model and define it as “an approach that connects people to activities, groups, and services in their community to meet the practical, social and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing.”
Work with communities, charities and local government
‘Better Making’ is an arts school social prescribing service for vulnerable young people which boosts their mental health, employability and social connection while learning conceptual and fine art techniques and collaborating to make public art. This differs from other craft and individual-outcome-oriented arts social prescribing provision to centre the emerging technologies and critical and conceptual practices of contemporary fine art. Better Making also benefits our students who can be social prescribing producers as well as users, giving them additional skills and creating opportunities for public art commissioning and employment.
Fine Art staff and students initiated this work through a long-term commission from Essex County Council and with the charities Arts4Dementia and Phoenix Futures. The purpose of these collaborations is to connect people struggling with their mental health through practical workshops, bringing their expertise in emerging technologies and collaborative creative practices. Every workshop is documented within a virtual studio built specifically for the project and includes detailed workshop plans, documentation of activities and 3D scans of finished work. Better Making are in the process of producing their first public art commission, due to be unveiled in December 2024.
Student facilitators received industry standard training on how to plan and deliver activities under the social prescribing model. They produced a workshop plan and with staff and co-compiled a training handbook for other participants on how to use the software and follow a 3D Digital workflow.
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Better Making virtual studio
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Workshops - Casts and capture of movements
Care for new students
Building on these successful collaborations and already working with UCL’s Creative Heath MASc, the Better Making team are testing ways to develop an internal ecology for social prescribing within CSM.
In 2024 the project team will be collaborating with colleagues and services across the University to pilot social prescribing with new students who will be referred by the UAL Counselling and Health Advice team.
Working with UAL’s Head of Counselling Marie Kan, our College counselling team and Associate Dean of Students, Wellbeing and Inclusion, Jennifer Alsop, the work will test a new support mechanism to improve the wellbeing of our first year students. Through peer to peer training, Better Making will be used as a case study for the UCL Creative Health students who are contributing to the development of this strand of the project.
In summer term, a number of first year students will be ‘referred’ to social prescribing workshops by the counselling team using the social prescribing model. The series will be led by Art Programme staff and Graduate Teaching Assistants and evaluated by the Better Making team, supported by an Advisory group of staff and students. Funded by the CSM Creativity in Action Fund, this work is about supporting wellbeing through creative activities and groups and rethinking how we integrate care within UAL systems.
Better Making
The community workshops with Essex County Council and the two national charities have informed a mission statement and longer-term plan. The Better Making approach is guided by national best practice and by a newly appointed Better Making Advisory board, including experts on social prescribing across UAL and the UK reviewing the work. The team has also developed a Making Better Ethical Framework.
This project provided professional training for social prescribing work for students and helped us build community links. The existing workshop model was adapted and developed to include key safeguarding training, informed by the Making Better Ethical Framework and a new Social Prescribing Training Handbook for students has been produced. Our virtual studio was also further developed, integrating it with training to archive and present the work.
The team have begun building a CSM social prescribing network. This includes external partners interested in our work, who we share best practice thinking with. This has developed through attending social prescribing meetups with three UK councils, government agencies, universities and arts organisations, building awareness of our work in the UK social prescribing landscape.
Better Making is also integrating with other projects at CSM. It was extended to students on work placement via our Diploma in Professional Studies, leading to graduate employment with Hospital Rooms and the Tate Education programme.
For further information contact bettermaking@csm.arts.ac.uk.
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Image courtesy of UAL, Sian Fan, Garden 3
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Shinuk Suh