There is increasing awareness of the role that the arts and creativity play in supporting health and wellbeing outcomes. But, there is a corresponding lack of consensus about how to assess the value and impact of this work.  

The creative sector has long struggled with the challenge of how to evaluate arts, health and wellbeing programmes in ways that are appropriate to the creative nature of the projects, accessible and enjoyable for participants, and credible in relation to health partners.   

A series of academic knowledge-exchange projects between 2011 -2015, led by myself and Professor Norma Daykin at the University of the West of England led to the development of Creative and Credible, an online resource which includes a model for evaluating creative health projects, as well as tools and resources designed to support improved evaluation across the sector.

The Creative and Credible model is based on an evaluation cycle which offers a framework for understanding evaluation as an iterative process.

The evaluation cycle and other resources are shared on the Creative and Credible website which guides people through the evaluation process, answering questions such as:

• What is an evidence review?

• How do I consult and set aims for an evaluation?

• What is an evaluation framework or protocol?

• What do I need to consider when collecting data?

• How do I go about analysing data?

• What about reporting and disseminating findings?

The resources on the Creative and Credible website were developed and tested through a Stakeholder Reference Group which included leading experts and key players in the evaluation field, such as evaluators, researchers, artists and arts organisations, health professionals and health and social care commissioners.

Learning from the Creative and Credible project informs the training I deliver:

An Introduction to arts, health and wellbeing evaluation

Creative Evaluation

Online and Remote Evaluation