In August, we launched our new strategy, setting out our plans for the next three years and our vision: that everyone can access and experience the joy of live music. In our 75th year, we invited everyone to play their part in composing our future.

People have always been at the heart of our organisation. We developed our new vision, mission and purpose by talking to our communities who create and experience our live music, which helped us to compose our long-term strategy, together with our staff and trustees.

Over the last year, we have made significant progress against our three original aims, and reflected on areas that were previously identified in the strategy but we feel need equal emphasis to help us move forward. These are: Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility, and our Organisational capability, which includes our investment in our systems and infrastructure. These sit alongside our existing aims: Impact, Voice and Recovery.

Demonstrating our impact and proving the difference we make.

Impact and research have a long history with the charity. We have continued to collaborate on demonstrating the benefits of live music over the years. Our first research subcommittee was founded in the early 1950s. Since then research has informed our programmes, from insights across the music and health sector and our own live music experiences, such as our recent IMAGINED project.

What have we achieved so far?

• Updated our theory of change to create the evaluation framework, incorporating musicians’ and settings’ voices and aligning with our strategic direction.
• Continued our return to sharing live music in critical care through our ICU Hear® and Lullaby Hour programmes.
• Recruited two new strategic roles within the live music team: Creative Engagement and Development Manager and Live Music Programme Manager.

What success looks like in the future

• Our live music: We will continue to share live music with people who cannot otherwise experience it. Creating unique moments and life-affirming impact through our personalised live music experiences.
• Musician engagement: Deepen engagement with our network of professional freelance musicians so that we can continue to share high-quality live music. Enable them to have the time and skills to be part of the evaluation process.
• A better quality of life: Apply our learning around impact outcomes to programme design, creating new live music experiences which engage and positively impact physical and mental health outcomes.

Elevating our profile by being a visible voice.

Raising awareness of the benefit of live music in health and care was a longstanding part of our previous mission. It is embedded in how we work as an organisation and essential to our future recovery.

What have we achieved so far?

• Our yearlong celebration communications for our 75th anniversary, which informed our approach to our new communication strategic plan to increase engagement and awareness.
• A Christmas press campaign to raise greater awareness of the benefits of live music in hospitals and care.

What success looks like in the future

• Increasing access to live music: Through greater awareness and an elevated profile, we aim to engage more health and care partners and increase access to live music.
• Brand recognition: This is essential to helping people access our live music and in creating more awareness of the impact.
• Reflecting the communities we work with: Sharing individual stories and findings on the impact of live music and continuing to have a voice as part of vital research and decision making about music and health. Representing the voices that make up our communities.
• Engaging content: We will continue to demonstrate the difference live music has on someone in health and care. We aim to bring a live music experience to life for our supporters and funders.

Building future financial stability and sustainable music delivery.

In the 1970s, Sylvia Lindsay began leading the charity and saved it from near closure. This was through increasing our fundraising efforts and taking a fresh outlook while staying true to what we do. She began to lay the foundations of a deeper understanding of the needs of the people we share live music with. We have kept this approach close to mind when planning our recovery from the pandemic.

What have we achieved so far?

• Continued to engage funders, health and care partners and supporters in the value of live music, which supported our recovery and increase in income from the previous year.
• Developed a digital fundraising strategy, with support from an external consultant to highlight the opportunities available to us to diversify our income.

What success looks like in the future

• Remove funding gap: We recover our income to ensure we have what need to deliver and to invest in our future resilience and ambitions. This includes working with our investment managers to achieve our strategic vision and to mitigate for potential future financial challenges.
• Establish new income streams: Successfully diversify our income to include new income streams, such as corporate fundraising and individual giving, that ensure future financial resilience.
• Sustainable live music: Working with health and care partners to secure more formal service level agreements. Seeking out different sources of funding through demonstrating the value and impact of our live music and building long-term partnerships with decision makers.

Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility has always been at the core of the charity.

Music is universal; it breaks down barriers. We want to understand and reflect the communities we work with and those we aim to work with.

What we have achieved so far?

• Joined Black Talent on Board as a host board, taking on two participants as shadow trustees.
  Recruited to the role of Head of Operations and formalised the development of a People and
  Culture Strategic Plan.
• Launched a strategy detailing our commitments to equality, diversity and inclusion.

What success looks like in the future

• Inclusive and accessible live music: Continue to work with people from a diverse range of backgrounds and communities living with different health and wellbeing challenges. Our live music reflects and enables people to experience different needs, tastes and cultures.
• Engagement, belonging and effective voice: We aim to foster an empowering environment and culture where our people can say they belong to an organisation that truly values equality, diversity, inclusion and accessibility.
• Learning and understanding: This isn’t just about delivering training. Equality, diversity, inclusion and accessibility will be an ongoing and organisation-wide learning conversation.
• Policies, practices and data: All of our organisational policies and working practices are assessed through a lens of equality, diversity, accessibility and inclusion – from fair and inclusive recruitment, to accessible technology.

Ensuring we have the systems, resources, processes and infrastructure we need allows us to focus on what we have always done – working together with our health and care partners, funders and supporters.

What have we achieved so far?

• Tendered and selected our new CRM and began the design and implementation.
• Tendered and onboarded our new IT provider whowill support with our move to cloud-based storage and systems.
• Scoped and agreed new online learning platform to support staff development and musicians’ essential training.

What success looks like in the future

• Strengthening relationships and communications: Our new CRM systems will help us to do this and allow us to provide a more personalised and consistent experience for people engaging with Music in Hospitals & Care.
• Operating more efficiently and effectively: Changes to our finance, HR and cloud-based systems will allow us to work more effectively and efficiently.
• Contributing to the wider picture: We have a role to play in helping meet the UK net zero target by 2050. In the lifetime of this strategy, we will have taken significant steps to reduce our emissions and developed our creative practice and process to influence partners.

“Patients and staff smile easier, look less stressed and feel hopeful within themselves. For a person’s mental health and wellbeing, it is medication in itself.”

Antrim Hospital