Supported by the Rayne Foundation, this new Centre will focus on enhancing the health and social care workforce's ability to integrate music into dementia care. It is part of the Power of Music Fund, a ground breaking initiative providing more than £2.6 million investment into activities to transform care and support for people with dementia. It will operate alongside the first Power of Music Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia announced in May, led by Manchester Camerata, sharing learning and helping generate a national step-change in how healthcare utilises music for people with dementia.
The selection process will run from October – February with the successful proposal being awarded in March 2024. The second Centre aims to be a transformative force in dementia care over the next three years, and will be focused on one place or region in England.
Outcomes for this Centre of Excellence
- More people with dementia accessing the health and wellbeing benefits of music as a result of encouragement and support from health and care staff
- Health & Care staff working with PLWD have easy access to high quality training and resources to increase knowledge and confidence, and to enable them to utilise music as part of their practice
- The Integrated Care System recognising the value of music as part of a holistic approach to care for and support people living with dementia, and commissioners and providers resourcing the training, development and systems required to embed it across their workforce
- Robust evidence demonstrating the impact and value of training for the health and care workforce, encouraging adoption by training and quality improvement, providers and/or leaders and other ICSs; and inclusion in national policy, enabling more people with dementia across the UK to access the benefits of music
Centre of Excellence criteria
Applications to this fund level must be led by either an Integrated Care Board, registered charity, social enterprise, CIC or other public sector organisation. The partnership should include a diverse range of partners which can include private sector organisations. To fulfil the criteria, the partnership must:
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Be a place-based partnership in England
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Include local health commissioners (the local NHS Integrated Care Board), training and/or workforce development organisations, voluntary and community sector organisations, and/or music providers
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Be able to develop strong links with training providers
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Have strong links to health and social care workforce enabling co-design of the model and implementation
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Offer training to health and care staff on the experiential and innovative health and wellbeing benefits of music for people living with dementia
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Seek to build on established digital systems
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Have evidence of match funding to ensure joint investment across local health & social care systems
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Be able to evidence system wide benefits of integrating a music-based approach for people with dementia (e.g., impact on the person, the workforce, and the wider health and care system such as health service usage)
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Demonstrate an integrated approach with the wider social prescribing system including Link Workers, voluntary organisations, and the health and care system
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Demonstrate the capability and capacity to provide high-quality and effective training, education, learning, and development materials and resources
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Plan for findings, evaluation, and frameworks that are transferrable; and must have the ability to scale up and spread
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Provide evidence of a clear and robust equality, diversity and inclusion strategy and/or framework, demonstrating a commitment to access and measuring impact on communities
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Ensure that representatives from across the workforce and local community are involved in planning, continuing to check in with them during delivery and adapting based on their feedback
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Include lived experience of PLWD and carers to include some level of co-production of the model and delivery
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Have an existing strategic commitment to improving dementia care (e.g., within the Integrated Care Strategy) including pre-diagnosis referral and care pathways
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Commit to strategic development of social prescribing (e.g., an ICS Social Prescribing Strategy or evidence of embedding the NHSE Social Prescribing Maturity Framework)
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Commit to articulate the value of arts & culture to health commissioners, providers, policy makers and clinicians and embed a system-level understanding of the benefits of Music to dementia.
Expressions of interest are now open
Dates
Expressions of interest open: 1 October
Expressions of interest close: 31 October
The new Centre of Excellence will be appointed in March 2025
Support
For support or if you have questions, please contact [email protected]
