​The National Council for Voluntary Organisations has published a report for arts and cultural organisations which are interested in engaging with public service commissioners.
The report documents the learning from the Cultural Commissioning Programme’s (CCP) work with five Locality Projects: CCP provided in-depth support to five groups of arts and cultural organisations, helping them develop knowledge, skills and capacity. The five groups, selected through an open application process which required them to show commitment to collaborative working to increase their engagement in commissioning, are based in: Birmingham, Derby, Manchester, Torbay, and York. They involve a diversity of participants, including individual artists, small arts organisations, museums, libraries and other cultural organisations of regional, national and international significance.

Arts Council England has published the Culture Change Guide, a toolkit to support arts organisations in developing a diverse workforce and leadership.
The guide contains case studies and best practice examples from the arts and culture sector and beyond, with guidance on how to recruit and support diverse talent in an organisation, and how to capture and use diversity data.
​There are six guides, each is a downloadable PDF:
·         How to find and grow diverse talent
·         How to recruit diverse talent
·         How to support diverse talent
·         How to develop diverse leadership
·         How to create diverse boards
·         How to collect and use diversity data

​American think tank Createquity has collated and reviewed research into the health benefits of the arts. The organisation has come up with a list of areas where they identify the evidence for the impact of the arts on wellbeing is strong.
The review of research into arts and wellbeing focuses on the benefits of the arts on a range of different wellbeing impact areas: physical and mental health, education and personal development, economic vitality, and social cohesion. The researchers are highly confident that:

•    Participatory arts activities help to maintain the health and quality of life of older adults. There is evidence that singing improves mental health and subjective wellbeing; taking dance classes bolsters cognition and motor skills; dancing and playing a musical instrument reduce the risk of dementia; and visual arts generate increases in self-esteem, psychological health, and social engagement.
  
• Arts therapies contribute to positive clinical outcomes, such as reduction in anxiety, stress, and pain for patients. Music interventions tend to dominate studies in this area, mostly characterized by passive forms of participation (e.g., listening to music).
• Arts participation in early childhood promotes social and emotional development. For example, teachers report fewer instances of shy, aggressive, and anxious behaviour among pre-schoolers taking dance classes, and toddlers receiving music instruction demonstrate increased social cooperation with other children.
• Student participation in structured arts activities enhances cognitive abilities and social skills that support learning, such as memory, problem-solving, and communication. (While arts participation may improve academic attainment as well, any effects are fairly small. Traditional scholastic measures such as standardized tests and grades have produced mixed evidence.)

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NHS  England has produced new guidance for NHS providers (including hospitals, primary care and general practices and community services) on how best to work with volunteers. It includes good practices and highlights different approaches to recruiting and managing volunteers.
The guidance aims to help providers:

• Develop the right process, procedures and frameworks to support quality volunteering opportunities that makes an impact.
• Achieve a balance in their approach; ensuring effective processes for recruitment and management of volunteers are in place without creating  unnecessary barriers or being too risk-averse.
• Ensure that the approach is accessible and inclusive, there are opportunities for a diverse range of people and volunteers reflect the communities in which we work. this includes involving people who experience the most health inequalities as volunteering can help reduce these.
• Identify existing good practice and develop a framework based on Investing in Volunteers, a recognised  standard for volunteer management also recommended by the Lampard Inquiry as a way for NHS to formally review their volunteering programmes.

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The King's Fund has produced a new animation  explaining how the NHS is structured and delivered.
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