News

LAHF is very grateful to the hundreds of you who took part in our national survey. Your answers will come together to form to an up to date map of arts in health activity in England which will then take the form of a database on the new national website for arts in health www.cultureandwellbeing.org.uk .

George Osborne’s first round of cuts have added a further £19m to the already announced £4m cut to ACE’s budget for this year. Including the £6.5m administrative savings, ACE are taking an overall 5% cut from the DCMS, compared to 3% across the rest of the department.

An online petition to encourage support for arts in mental health is nearing its deadline. The petition on the Downing Street website makes a call for greater resources available within the NHS and Local Authorities for the use of arts as an aid to recovery, wellbeing and social inclusion for people with mental health problems. The deadline for signing the petition is 10th July 2010.

Arts Alliance have launched a new online community for arts in the criminal justice system. The website allows people to become members of Arts Alliance and both link up and interact with arts practitioners and those involved or interested in the arts.

w. www.artsalliance.org.uk

The increasingly popular social networking site Facebook has welcomed the world of arts and health with the launch of both LAHF and Be Creative Be Well’s pages. Please sign up as a friend and keep up to date with events, news and opportunities and also let us know what you are up to.

LAHF is currently undertaking a national survey to put together an up to date map of arts in health activity in England.  This research will also help create a searchable database which will be the central component of a new national website for arts in health www.cultureandwellbeing.org.uk.

In May LAHF received its charitable status from the Charities Commission. We hope that this will enable us to work more visibly and effectively towards our goal of working with practitioners from both the arts and healthcare sectors to promote, research, improve and develop greater awareness of the benefits of the arts on health and wellbeing.

Following the new Government’s implementation of £6bn of cuts across Whitehall, Arts Council has announced that it will be required to make cuts to its budget of £19m in this financial year. The Arts Council has said it will be impossible to make these savings solely from running costs so some cuts are likely to funded organisations and grants.

In April the Mayor of London published the London Health Inequalities Strategy, setting out how the Greater London Authority (GLA) intends to tackle health inequalities in London and change the “stark and unacceptable differences in [Londoners’] wellbeing and longevity”.

On 19^th January, Arts Council England (ACE) opened their consultation on future priorities for the arts. ACE identified areas for development in the arts over the next ten years and asked for views to inform its long term strategy and next set of investment decisions.