The Scottish Government is working to develop a Culture Strategy for Scotland. The last two Programmes for Government have committed to a Culture Strategy for Scotland, which will be underpinned by the principles of access, equity and excellence.

As part of an initial engagement phase Voluntary Health Scotland, through our role as the secretariat of the Health Inequalities Cross Party Group, facilitated a discussion on the impact that arts and culture can have on people’s health and wellbeing and how we can ensure that people suffering from the worst health inequalities can benefit from arts and culture. The meeting took place on 7^th December 2017, and we heard from Cath Denholm, Director of Strategy at NHS Health Scotland, Leonie Bell, the Scottish Government Lead on the Cultural Strategy and Margaret O’Connor Chief Executive at Art in Healthcare. The information gathered through these Culture Conversations will help shape a draft of the strategy which will form the basis of a formal public consultation.

This briefing aims to capture the conversation that was had at the Cross Party Group in order to inform people of the relationship between health and culture and to form a basis for the continuation of the discussion around how we can influence the Culture Strategy for Scotland to better impact on people’s health and wellbeing by increasing access to art and culture.

You can read the full briefing here: Voluntary Health Scotland Briefing on the Culture Strategy and Health