Children and young people (CYP) are experiencing a significant mental health (MH) crisis that is threatening their future. Deeply rooted health inequalities perpetuate this crisis and call for immediate action. This project will promote easy access to best practice in local arts activities that support the diverse MH needs of CYP and thus enable them to take better control of their lives. By supporting the MH of CYP the project will meet an important NHS priority contributing towards tackling the health inequalities affecting their lives. We will build on successes from Arts for the Blues (AH/W007983/1), a project that received funding from AHRC for phase one of this programme and successfully scaled up the use of an evidence-based creative psychological intervention in the North West. We will also draw on a track-record of 25+ years of engaging CYP in arts activities, and on our extensive co-production experience. Co-creation will therefore become central to this work. We will focus on CYP aged 9-13, a group at significant risk of developing MH problems whilst transitioning from childhood to early adolescence. They will be encouraged to act as co-researchers developing skills they can use after the completion of the project, ensuring direct benefits. We expect that co-creation will lead to meaningful engagement of CYP with this study that aims to generate new, scalable evidence concerning: (A) how to access arts activities that best support the MH of CYP; (B) how to evaluate arts activities that meet the diverse MH needs of CYP; (C) how to maximise the benefit of arts activities for as many CYP as possible. We will create a digital platform where evidence-based local arts activities will become easily accessible for CYP, their families, relevant organisations and services. We will do this by identifying good local arts practice that addresses the diverse MH needs of CYP, especially those who are often under-represented. Six CYP Creative Health Associates will be employed to work in areas with marked health inequalities and establish local collaborations between community partners and existing social prescribing link workers. They will also work with the research team to provide easy and sustainable access to arts activities and thus, bypass local barriers. The active involvement of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) (e.g., Lancashire and South Cumbria and Cheshire and Mersey Care), medical leads and medical directors of CYP's MH, NHS trusts, schools and community organisations will encourage collaboration within and across systems, enabling the development of an agreed evaluation framework of best practice in arts activities. This will support streamlining access to therapeutic uses of the arts as well as scaling up and adopting the outputs from the study in the North West and beyond. Finally, we will develop and share the project outputs with our 46 non-academic national and international collaborators, making an active contribution towards tackling health inequalities that benefits the MH of CYP wherever they live.

This project builds on previous research by the Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society at the University of Liverpool (CRILS), 'Assessing the intrinsic value, and health and well-being benefits, for individual and community, of The Reader's Volunteer Reader Scheme' (CRILS CVP). The study focused on a volunteer programme, which engaged people at risk of, or suffering from, mental health difficulties, isolation and unemployment. Examining every aspect of TR's volunteer experience - from participating in, to leading, a community reading group - the report concluded that the chief well-being benefits were: increased sense of purpose in life and of personal worth through shared literary reading; an active sense of belonging and of acceptance within a personalised community ethos; renewed belief in the value of one's work and contribution; a sense of the social as an inherent value, beyond overcoming deficit (such as loneliness). This follow-on project will spread the opportunities and benefits of The Reader's Volunteer Scheme (RVS) as widely and economically as possible, while maintaining the quality, richness and depth of the individual reader volunteer experience evidenced by the CRILS CVP study. In relation to reading literature for psychological health and development, its mission closely corresponds to the wider Cultural Value Project's recommended priority of 'creating the context and conditions for change' through cultural engagement and active citizenship. The follow-on activities proposed have three major strands, designed to enable the successful national roll-out of a reader volunteer model, which to date has been centred in the North-West and London. 1.To use the learning and evidence from CRILS CVP to collaborate with The Reader (TR) in producing online digital literary learning resources. We will co-create with TR training films in which CRILS will activate research findings in relation to literature from diverse periods, modelling skills in careful reading. Excerpts from reading groups - newly-filmed as well as selected from audio-video recordings generated as part of the original research data - will offer insights into group dynamics. A short publicity film will also be made to introduce potential volunteers and partners to the value of shared reading. It is essential for lasting impact that these films are attractively innovative and of the highest quality in order to attract interest and educated involvement. 2.To work closely with TR to consolidate its existing partnerships with the public sector (NHS, local government and library services) and develop new collaborative working (with third and corporate sector organisations). The aim of these partnerships will be to identify local champions committed to growing and embedding reader volunteering. By thus harnessing the assets of local communities in disseminating and embedding the use and value of these resources, the project will ensure that, as the volunteering initiative spreads nationally, it also remains locally-led, in the hands of those who are closest to, and understand best, the needs of local communities. 3.To use and refine evaluation methods developed in CRILS' original CVP research in order robustly to assess the beneficiary outcomes of individual volunteer experience within shared reading. Specifically, we will implement the explicit recommendations arising from CRILS' CVP report as to the most sensitive outcome measures for reporting benefit and test them across a broad population of beneficiaries. In so doing, we will also align our follow-on project with one of the key emphases of the AHRC's full Cultural Value Project report - namely the importance of embedding multi-criteria evaluation within arts' practice. The model, its methods and resources and the evaluation thereof, will be available to other organisations which partner.

The AHRC's track record of innovation in relation to the role of Arts and Humanities in fostering mental health and wellbeing, nationally and internationally, is proven in the range and diversity of mental health-related themes and calls, including the Cultural Value Project, Connected Communities and the AHRC's contribution via GCRF-funded projects to the Global Mental Health agenda, which has principally been concerned with addressing inequities in mental health provision across the globe. Thanks in large part to the AHRC's leadership, the national case for the value of Arts and Humanities in enhancing mental health has now been effectively made, and the role of culture and the creative arts is firmly acknowledged in UKRI's cross-disciplinary agenda for mental health. Of the five cross-cutting themes identified in UKRI's mental health strategy, the first is 'effective intervention', enabling 'inclusive participation' and 'transferability, sustainability, scalability'. The key and pressing challenge now is to ensure a robust, evidence-based and research-informed approach that will enable Arts and Humanities research-based activities to be accessible to those who are experiencing them across the globe This project rises to that challenge by establishing an international network to explore which Arts and Humanities research-based activities are working for whom (when, why and where) and what is evidenced best practice for embedding Arts and Humanities research in mental health provision in different socio-cultural contexts. Led by an interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities team (English Literature/Intercultural Education/Applied Linguistics) specialising in high-impact Arts/Humanities research-based mental health provision, and drawing on expertise in Psychology. Health Sciences and Modern Languages and Cultures, as well as working in collaboration with external health partners and arts organisations, the project will focus on the successful implementation and embedding of Arts and Humanities research in the promotion of mental health and wellbeing, nationally and internationally. With a specific focus on equality and inclusion, and the special part Arts and Humanities research-based initiatives in Mental Health and Wellbeing have to play in overcoming health inequities and exclusions globally, the network is motivated by a 'trans-knowledging' agenda. Research evidence shows that high income countries have valuable lessons to learn from low-income ones, especially in embracing pluralism in respect of approaches to mental health and wellbeing. Three focused workshops - (i) strategic partnerships between Arts and Health providers (ii) inclusive practices in mental health care and (iii) alignment with existing community capacities - will bring together state-of-the-art knowledge and expertise with ongoing successful models of Arts and Humanities-based research in mental health from across the world. Building on the exceptionally strong track record in two UK cities (Liverpool and Glasgow) of innovative collaboration between arts and health, as well as on the interdisciplinary research team's experience of working locally and (inter)nationally on Arts/Humanities research for mental health, the series will emphasise: co-creating with stakeholders means for embedding research-based change; promoting joined-up planning of successful projects nationally and internationally; identifying what needs to be done in differentiating the benefits to mental health of distinct Arts/Humanities activities in different socio-cultural contexts. The short-term objective of this network is to establish what has already worked and what lessons can be learnt for the immediate priorities in the aftermath of Covid-19. The long-term objective is to position Arts and Humanities at the forefront of an inclusive vision of mental health provision and the AHRC in the vanguard of addressing the national and global mental health challenge in the future.

Playfulness is an innate human trait crucial for making sense of the world, creativity, development of social skills and positive emotions. It is a trait which is strongly encouraged in children and young people but increasingly is being squeezed out in adulthood amidst the pressures and technologies of contemporary western society. It is often viewed as 'juvenile' and 'unproductive' use of time. Yet playfulness is celebrated in different forms within some arenas - particuarly the creative arts and sport - where the act of play is viewed as offering positive health and well-being benefits, actively encouraged as part of community cohesion agendas and providing spaces for creativity and entrepreneurial thinking. By engaging actively with these the arenas of creative arts & culture and sport, and drawing on the experiences and practices which encourage and celebrate playfulness, the proposed research will seek, firstly to characterise attributes of playfulness and, secondly to identify new research questions concerning ways in which it might be fostered in adults in order to promote flourishing, resilience, creativity and therefore enhance wellbeing for both individuals and communities. It will thus also explore how playfulness can help to reconnect people and communities, assisting to overcome conflict and dissonance but reducing isolation, stress, and alienation.

This study will assess the impact on mental health of restricted access to arts and culture in a specific city region, and track, enable and enhance the value of innovation in arts provision in mitigating associated harms. Liverpool has one of the richest concentrations of culture in the UK, boasting the largest clustering of museums and galleries outside London. Cultural capital is critical to the city region's economy, contributing c10% (Culture Liverpool,2019). The city also has a pioneering history of harnessing arts for mental health care through partnerships between culture and health providers. Building on the University of Liverpool's strong alliance with organisations across these sectors, this project brings together an interdisciplinary team of arts and mental health researchers to devise and conduct, in consultation with cultural and health bodies, two surveys. Survey 1 (online interviews) will target 20 arts organisations (10 civic institutions, 10 community arts programmes, representing 'elite' and 'popular' arts) to capture (i)the impact of COVID-19 on public access to arts provision (including those who usually access the arts through formal healthcare routes) and on audience/beneficiary change over time (legacy losses and potential gains) (ii)the success of alternative (e.g. online/digital) modes of provision by arts organisations in reaching and communicating with established and/or new audiences. Survey 2 (online questionnaire and supplementary online/telephone interviews) will target c300 arts' audiences/beneficiaries to capture (i)the impact on mental health of restricted/non-existent access to usual provision (ii)the perceived value and accessibility of alternative arts provision and the latter's impact on mental health/wellbeing.