What we do
A Choir in Every Care Home (ACIECH) is a UK-wide initiative, led by Live Music Now in partnership with Sound Sense and the Sidney De Haan Research Centre at Canterbury Christchurch University. It is funded by the Baring Foundation and is supported by 35 national organisations from the arts, social care and academic sectors. It supports the growth of innovative, sustainable, regular and effective live-music interventions for older people in residential and other care settings.
Live Music Now (LMN) annually delivers thousands of interactive music programmes in care homes, hospitals, healthcare settings and special schools across the UK. The ACIECH project’s initial stages involved an enquiry process into how to support the changes we are seeking, which resulted in several published papers and tool kits, and the endorsement of Andrea Sutcliffe (CQC Chief Inspector). Currently, we are running five care-home residencies with MHA (Methodist Homes for the Aged) and The Orders of St John Care Trust. Each residency consists of 11 sessions with trained professional musicians, and includes the training of care staff and volunteers in the day-to-day use of music.
In 2017, the New Age Music Project evaluated our residencies and revealed a positive impact on participants’ mood and communication, as well as increased scores on the wellbeing indicators. Currently, Professor Norma Daykin and Dr David Walters of the Centre for the Arts as Wellbeing at the University of Winchester are running an evaluation of the ongoing ACIECH residencies. They helped develop an Evaluation Protocol through a co-creation process with the ASC-provider partners, and have secured the necessary ethics consent. They are currently analysing the data.
