We warmly invite you to join us in discussion with Dr Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, who researched and drafted the report Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing, as she talks about how Michael Marmot’s ideas have informed the basis on which she makes the case for the arts in health across the UK.Described as heralding a landmark moment for the field, the report was the result of a two-year major Inquiry undertaken by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts Health and Wellbeing (APPGAHW). This saw almost 200 people submitting examples of practice and 16 roundtable discussions involving around 300 parliamentarians, arts, health and social care professionals, service users and academics. The focus of the discussion will be an examination of the ‘social determinants of health’ and the ways in which arts engagement can influence social determinants such as education and employment. She will be joined by Phil George, Chair of Arts Council of Wales, who recently announced a new three-year initiative which sees a memorandum between Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh NHS to promote ‘the benefits that the arts can bring to the population’s well-being and to creating a more equal, cultural and sustainable Wales’.

Delegates will be invited to contribute to the discussion, identifying gaps in the evidence base and considering how Dr Gordon-Nesbitt’s findings relate to the Welsh context for Arts in Health, where many developments look set to unfold, building on the Welsh Assembly’s own Cross-Party Group on Arts and Health.

Refreshments will be served by kind donation and support by the ECRN.