Assessing the Impact of Arts and Creativity Interventions for Older People: A Public Health Evaluation Toolkit

Background and purpose of toolkit

In 2021, the Institute of Public Health carried out an evidence review on how arts and
creativity can have positive outcomes for older people’s health and wellbeing. One of the
recommendations identified the need for an evaluation toolkit for the arts and creativity
sector to be able to better measure, record and assess the impact of their programmes. It
was this work that led to the development of this toolkit.

This toolkit aims to support the arts and creativity sector* to design, plan, conduct,
assess and report on evaluations of arts and creativity programmes and interventions
within a public health context.

It is hoped that this practical guide will help the sector to better understand and measure
the difference they make to improving public health outcomes for older people. This can
help to provide a greater recognition of the benefits that participation in arts and creativity
can provide for positive health and wellbeing and active ageing.

The objectives of the toolkit are to:

• Provide a better understanding of the concept of public health and the importance of
arts and creativity in promoting health and wellbeing in older adults.
• Provide support to increase your knowledge and understanding of what evaluation is
and why it is important for your intervention or programme.
• Provide you with some guidance on the approaches and tools you can use to prepare,
plan, and implement your evaluation.
• Help you identify outcomes which matter the most to the people you work with and to
your organisation.
• Help you to focus on the most appropriate tools you can use to measure health and
wellbeing changes in outcomes for the people who use your service.
• Provide information for better reporting of project activities to better understand what
works in different situations.
• Explain terminologies used in relation to evaluation and the different elements of your
work. A resources and template section also provides examples and links to helpful
guidance resources referenced throughout the toolkit.

This toolkit is not a definitive resource to evaluation as there are many existing resources
and supports available, but it does seek to articulate the important steps in carrying out an
effective and balanced evaluation as well as imparting practical advice on how to do it. This
will help you to build an appropriate evaluation into your project and services.

Read the resource.