1. Will the Minister outline how the Welsh Government is supporting the use of arts to improve health and well-being in social care settings? OAQ55095

Arts-based initiatives can play an important role in improving the health and well-being outcomes of people in care settings. That is why we are supporting arts-based projects, including through the integrated care fund and Age Cymru's healthy ageing programme.

Thank you, Deputy Minister. The cross-party group on arts and health, which I chair, has been looking at areas of good practice around Wales. In our meetings, we've seen some innovative examples of how arts-based activities are being delivered in social care settings across Wales to improve people's physical and mental well-being. One such example has been Age Cymru's six-year programme cARTrefu. It aims to improve access to quality arts experiences for older people in residential care. Artists deliver weekly creative sessions with residents, staff and family members over eight to 12 weeks, inspiring and reigniting a passion for creativity. Since 2015, nearly 2,000 two-hour sessions have been delivered in over 25 per cent of the care homes across Wales, making it the largest project of its kind across Europe.

As demand on social care services across Wales continues to rise, and with a growing understanding of the importance of the arts on health and well-being, support and expansion of projects like cARTrefu are important. Would the Deputy Minister endeavour to look at the good practice that is taking place and how to properly embed this work in our care settings? I'd also like to extend an invitation to the Deputy Minister to attend one of our cross-party groups to hear about some of the excellent collaborative work that's going on.

I'd like to thank Jayne Bryant for her question and for her work on the cross-party group on the arts and health. I was a member of that group and I know what important work it does and how important the arts are for health, and I'd be very pleased to come to one of the meetings.

Obviously, one of the challenges to enable arts to happen in social care settings is cost, and I'm very pleased that the Welsh Government is continuing to support Age Cymru's healthy ageing programme. Yesterday I published the loneliness and isolation strategy, which commits the Welsh Government to working with the Arts Council of Wales to continue to raise awareness of the health and well-being benefits of participating in the arts, and this is obviously so important in social care settings. And in addition, the Arts Council of Wales will explore the role that arts on prescription can play, particularly in preventing loneliness and isolation.

And I'd like to finish, really, by saying I'm aware of the role that Jayne Bryant plays in supporting the arts in the community from my visit to Derwen Pobl housing complex, meeting the Reality Theatre yesterday.

Deputy Minister, engaging in arts activities empowers people living with dementia and enriches life for them and those who are around them. The charity, Arts 4 Dementia, helps develop activities at art venues to re-energise and inspire people in the early stages of dementia and their carers so that those who need it will be able to find artistic stimulation in their chosen art form close to where they live. Deputy Minister, what support and encouragement is the Welsh Government providing to organisations such as Arts 4 Dementia to enable people living with dementia in Wales to live more fulfilled and active lives for longer at home and in the community they live?

I thank Mohammad Asghar for that question, and I think he makes a very important point—how important it is for people with dementia to live as near to their homes as possible and to have the opportunity of benefiting from the arts. He'll be aware of the dementia action plan for Wales from 2018 to 2022, which sets out our vision for Wales to be a dementia-friendly nation and that absolutely recognises the rights of people with dementia to live as independently as possible. Through the implementation of the plan, we're trying to develop community approaches that will provide more opportunities for people who are affected by dementia to be involved in activities, including participation in culture and the arts. I always remember, when I think about the area of dementia and the arts, the fantastic work of the Forget-me-Not choirs, which the Member may have attended, where somebody with dementia and their carer both take part in singing, and the words all come back of the old songs to the person suffering with dementia who may not be able to communicate in any other way. So, I think there is huge power in the arts to help people with dementia.