ON November 10 The Courtyard in Hereford became a hub for innovation as some of the most creative minds from the local arts and cultural sectors joined forces with commissioners and decision makers from the public sector to explore how arts and culture can play a more meaningful role in public service outcomes. The event was the brainchild of The Elmley Foundation. As well as awarding grants, the Elmley Foundation believes strongly in taking initiatives to fill gaps and generally develop the arts scene in the two counties.

Working with the Worcestershire Arts Partnership and independent think-tank the New Economics Foundation (NEF), the event saw around 100 delegates from across Herefordshire and Worcestershire representing professions as diverse as theatre, filmmaking, visual arts and museums alongside those from police, probation, health and social care.

Speakers included Barrie Sheldon, deputy police and crime commissioner West Mercia Police, who sponsored the event, and Jules Ford, cultural commissioning project manager for Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group who highlighted an array of creative interventions to clinical problems, including prescriptions for choral workshops improving the condition of asthma sufferers. Dr Simon Lennane, a GP, from Ross-on-Wye and mental health lead for Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group helped set the tone for the day by quoting Brian Eno's "Art is everything you don't have to do" and adding that when he meets patients with depression he frequently finds they have stopped doing the things they don't have to do, which are most often the things they enjoy. Dr Lennane's approach sometimes sees him "prescribing" social activities rather than drugs and his practice runs a regular poetry workshop to help improve the social lives and creative expression of his patients.

Delegates were treated to a programme of workshops exemplifying how arts and culture is improving public service outcomes in practice, such as ground breaking new work by the Rural Media Company developing a way to help young people with a learning disability into employment by using video CVs, a trip to watch music participatory group Yam Jams, and the established practices of Worcester based theatre company Vamos which is teaching empathy and communication to NHS staff through mask theatre workshops. Just three examples of how arts and culture can, and often already is, changing lives by improving wellbeing.