National Museums Liverpool

Developing PCT Partnership

Introduction

National Museums Liverpool (NML) currently comprises eight museums:HM Revenue and Customs National Museum, International Slavery Museum, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Merseyside Maritime Museum, National Conservation Centre, Sudley House, Walker Art Gallery, and World Museum Liverpool. A ninth venue, the Museum of Liverpool, will open in 2010/11.

Our MissionUsing all our assets - staff, collections and buildings, NML enables millions of people from all backgrounds, from the locality and from further afield, to enjoy the benefits of engagement with a world-class museum service.

Our Values We believe that museums are fundamentally educational in purpose. We believe that museums are places for ideas and dialogue that use

collections to inspire people. We are a democratic museum service and we believe in the concept of social

justice: we are funded by the whole of the public and in return we strive to provide an excellent service to the whole of the public.

We believe in the power of museums to help promote good and active citizenship, and to act as agents of social change.

We believe in seeking out new opportunities and innovative ways of working, so as to keep our public offer fresh, relevant, challenging and competitive.

NML and PCT Partnership

We would like to develop a strategic partnership with PCT’s to explore how we might raise awareness of NML’s education and community programme, and to develop our support for the 5 Ways to Wellbeing initiative, with a particular focus on connecting with people through participation in museum activity, being active by making the journey into the city centre to get to the museum, taking notice and being curious by enjoying the social elements of museum engagement projects, keep learning about the history of our city and it’s cultural heritage, and giving time to support others to enjoy their experience of NML.

We have developed and are committed to a wide range of engagement programmes, delivered in collaboration with local statutory and voluntary sector health partners and organisations. This provides a solid foundation for us to build a strategic relationship with local/regional PCT partners.

Teenage Parents projectThis project is working with young parents and their children in partnership with Liverpool Children’s Services and Liverpool PCT Teenage parent strategy and with young parents through Children’s Centres in North Liverpool, City and Liverpool East and the Alternative Education Programme at Ellegreen.

Alder Hey Hospital Dewi Jones Unit

The Dewi Jones Unit is an NHS tier 4 service, catering for the most serious and complex mental health problems in children and young people aged 6-14. Children and young people take part in weekly term time museum visit to access learning in an informal, non threatening way. The programme encourages communication and interaction within a non hospital environment. Our sessions have also who were unable to leave the unit.

Treatment Foster Care been delivered at the hospital for individuals A new area of work for us, this project supports Liverpool Children’s Services and Alder Hey Hospital with guided tours for foster carers who look after children with mental health problems. This was to encourage the carers to feel confident and comfortable bringing their young people into the museum and to pick out areas that may be of interest to teenagers.

Wirral Day Centres Four local day centres visit our venues on a monthly basis to access our informal education programme and to interact socially with our staff and service users from the other day centres. We have also delivered sessions at the day centres specifically for people with PMLD (profound and multiple learning disability). This work is focused on sensory stimulation linked to a copy of an artwork. The sensory sessions are an attempt to give individuals access to the museums. There is a lot of potential to develop this further.

Greenbank CollegeGreenbank College is a charity that provides learning and sports opportunities for people with disabilities. Although this isn’t directly health related all of the individuals that we support have been referred by a social worker via the independent living department. Our programme explores confidence building, health awareness, assertiveness training, domestic skills, cookery etc. We have led a sound recording project with one group and organised visits to the museums. Our aim has been to give participants validation to the belief that their opinions are important and should be heard and to give them to access local culture. We have also started working with pre entry level students to provide access to learning sessions for individuals who would be unlikely to access the museum in any way outside of college.

Mary Seacole HouseThis is a mental health charity particularly aimed at BEM individuals. Service users have been referred by social services or their doctor. We developed this project through the PCT’s Gateways to Active Living strand, delivering art based projects around memories of music in the 60’s and 70’s, particularly the Black music scene in Liverpool,. Our aim for participants is to develop regular access to World Museum and the International Slavery Museum and to encourage social prescribing and service users as an alternative to medicine. In the long term we hope to be able to evidence increased confidence and aspirations of the group and have recently received a very positive external evaluation of this project (see attached).

Liverpool Supporting People Service User forumThis group is part of Liverpool adult social services and represents people with disabilities who are in supported living accommodation. NML worked with them to provide a venue for some of their meetings and programme for example, we worked with the NML marketing team to help the group produce their own newsletter.

NML Reminiscence Guides

NML has over 15 trained retired volunteers who deliver reminiscence workshops for adults with dementia and brain injury; including outreach visits to care homes and hospices, and by working in partnership with the Stroke Association. The museum objects are used as context to encourage memory and aid engagement within the service users.

Mossley Hill Brain Injuries groupOur relationship began with the Making More Sense project, wherein we commissioned local artists to delivery a series of workshops in which the group created artwork which investigated different facets of the conscious mind including; executive function, memory, creative self and industrious self. The project culminated in the Unfolding exhibition in which paintings were displayed alongside paper sculptures that were created by the artists. We have continued to work with the group and they have since showcased an exhibition of ceramics at Sudley House in December 2009. We are currently discussing further project and exhibition ideas.

Crosby Day Care - Mersey Care NHS trustCrosby day group is a mental health support group that focuses on sharing strategies for coping with depression. The group visit Sudley House every other week and access the house and grounds to practice a range of activities including yoga based exercise, creative arts and healthy living.

Walk for HealthOur education team at the NML Conservation centre run a weekly ‘Walk for Health’ programme in collaboration with the NHS. Over 20 people on a walk which takes in city centre locations where examples of conservation done by NML are highlighted before they return to the centre for a cup of tea or coffee.  The Mersey & Dee Young Archaeologists Club Our programme supports young people 8-16 some of whom have particular difficulties such as autism or behavioural difficulties.

Merseyside Society for the Deaf Our family workshops aim to help families work together - we cater for all ages and abilities and try to help all visitors enjoy their visit while engaging with the collections to make people's live more fulfilled and hopefully as a consequence healthier.   NML Rush Drugs Awareness programme This annual programme was developed in response to concerns from teachers and youth leaders about the growing impact of drugs misuse on young Merseyside people and their families. Since it was launched 15 years ago almost 30,000 young people have taken part in a bespoke theatre in education workshop programme delivered every January to local secondary schools.

Hooked Substance Awareness We have recently developed a session for secondary schools that takes a close up look at objects that illustrate the issues surrounding addictive substances including legal and illegal drugs, alcohol and tobacco. This session can be modified to suit a wide range of ages and abilities.

Weapons Awareness at NMLMembers of the NML Education team deliver a weapons awareness session for local secondary schools, NEET groups and youth groups. We are the only cultural organisation in Merseyside licensed to run this programme. International Slavery Museum

We offer a programme of dance workshops at the International Slavery Museum for schools, public and other groups for example: Capoeira Movement Session which blends elements of dance, martial arts and music to create a truly unique art form which is exciting to watch but even more fun to play.

Forthcoming Exhibitions – A Healthy EweWe are working with Aardman Animations to develop an exciting new exhibition for all the family that tackles some of the major health issues of the day. The exhibition will open in spring 2012 at World Museum Liverpool. Shaun the Sheep and his friends from the farm take time out from filming to help get the message out there that getting fit is both cool and fun! But there’s no room for woolly ideas here…. this exhibition will be built on cutting edge science, drawing on the knowledge of specialists in the field and the latest research. The exhibition will have a broad appeal for visitors of all ages, family groups and schools.

Carol RogersExecutive Director Education, Communities and VisitorsNational Museums LiverpoolMay 2010