Researchers kickstart the future of health and social care dialogues

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) have announced over £300,000 will be invested in 10 creative projects to help tackle health and social care inequalities across the UK.

Last week UKRI and AHRC confirmed £348,000 would be invested into projects spread across the UK from Kent in south-east England to the Highlands and Islands in Scotland. Each of the schemes will see researchers collaborating with communities to explore their lived experience of health and social care to help inform researchers, health practitioners, and wider discussions with policy makers and the public about the future of care.

Professor Christopher Smith, AHRC executive chair, said: ‘The foundation of the NHS 75 years ago was just one of the many ways in which the UK has been an innovator and leader in health and social care.

‘[Last week we announced] new projects to harness our world-leading expertise in arts and humanities research to present the future of health and social care in imaginative and exciting ways.

‘The NHS was fundamentally a consensus driven idea about care and respect for our fellow humans, the product of a humane imagination, and those are the values which will again secure the future of our health, ageing and wellbeing.’

Taking place between June 2023 and spring 2024 to coincide with the 75^th anniversary of the NHS, the projects will connect with new and diverse audiences whose voices are not often heard as part of national debates.  

Funded projects will use a wide range of creative and imaginative approaches to engage the public, including:

• New artwork created by staff and patients. This will form part of a travelling exhibition exploring the realities and challenges of the connections between acute care in hospitals and social care delivered in communities across Greater Manchester
• Podcasts and TikTok videos created by new mothers, migrants, older adults and young people based on their lived experience of using mental health services in Kent
• Archival materials and first-hand memories. Researchers, musicians and artists will collaborate with local communities to examine the history of social care and NHS provision in the highlands and islands of Scotland to help shape forward looking conversations and its future

In addition, one special example of a creative approach that will be released next month is a poetry anthology that was constructed by Dr Kim Moore, who has been based at Trafford General Hospital since the beginning of this year, obtaining first-hand examples of how people are treated in the health and social care system.

Similarly, three emerging filmmakers are working on producing new shot films that respond to the NHS on film archive. They will be released in November as part of an AHRC partnership with the British Film Institute.