How we measure our impact

Evaluation

Evaluation is central to our music therapy work. Our music therapists use evaluation as vital tool to enhance the quality and impact of their sessions. By gathering information, such as client feedback, session observations and case notes, they’re able to evaluate the effectiveness of their interventions for the people we support. This is an ongoing process and helps us maintain a quality service by identifying what works well and where improvements might be needed.

Research

Our research allows us to properly examine our practice. It highlights opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed and helps us train our students on our Masters of Music Therapy course more effectively. Ultimately, it gives us the knowledge we need to evolve our approach in a way that makes it more impactful for the people we support.

The Nordoff Robbins approach requires our music therapists to be constantly aware of how their work is affecting the experience of their clients. That analytical instinct reaches into every aspect of our work. That’s why carrying out pioneering research is such an important part of what we do. And why everyone, from students to practicing therapists, has a part to play.

Supervision and feedback

Supervision forms an important part of the work our music therapists do, both on their placements as part of the Master of Music Therapy course, and in their daily working lives as music therapists. Supervision involves meeting with another music therapist to discuss and reflect on their approach to their sessions. During training, supervision aims to ensure that students are thinking about and reflecting on their own practice to ensure that they’re working safely and effectively. Ultimately we want our students to develop their own ‘internal supervisor’ so that they’re equipped to work independently long after they’ve completed their studies.

Our work in schools

Music is a vital part of any curriculum, with research showing its importance for wellbeing and the impact it has on our ability to think creatively and work collaboratively. And yet it is becoming increasingly inaccessible to children and young people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds and with special educational needs.

This squeeze on music education also has a potentially devastating effect on our future workforce. It means fewer young people following their passion to become the musicians, music therapists and community musicians of tomorrow. This in turn will mean that fewer isolated people are able to access music therapy. As music teaching retreats into only the best-resourced schools, our workforce risks becoming less diverse and less representative of the people we work with across the UK.

We will continue to raise awareness of this issue and support music education specialists who challenge the narrowing of access to both curriculum music teaching and opportunities for musical participation within schools. As a higher education provider, we will seek to train and employ musicians from more diverse backgrounds. Hand in hand with this, we will work to increase the take-up of music therapy by schools, multi-academy trusts and music education hubs, making musical experiences more available to those who stand to benefit from them most.

We’re currently working in 115 educational settings such as mainstream and SEN schools. We asked people around the country about the impact our work has had.

• 92% of pupils who had music therapy said that it improved their mental health.*
• 89% of pupils who had music therapy said that we improved their quality of life.*
• 96% of pupils who had music therapy said that we gave them a positive creative experience*
• 92% of staff said that music therapy helped their pupils to communicate better.**
• 94% of staff said that music therapy improved relationships between staff and pupils.**

Results based on *2,870 people surveyed and **1,534 people surveyed.

Our work in mental health settings

Music and music therapy can reach even the most isolated people in our society. Poor mental health can be very isolating, affecting a person’s personality and thought processes and their ability to express themselves, interact with others and sustain healthy relationships.

By offering a non-verbal means of communication, music therapy can have a positive impact on emotional, physical and social difficulties. For many people, the close musical attention of music therapy may be much more bearable than verbal interaction, giving them an opportunity to experience their capacities for creativity and wellness.

Music therapy is part of the multi-disciplinary approach in many psychiatric services but is also an invaluable dimension of community-based provision, which seeks to help people to keep well and avoid hospital admissions.

This is why Nordoff and Robbins is building the case for music therapy as part of a holistic approach to mental healthcare. Through advocacy and research, we raise awareness of the positive impact of music therapy on mental health and wellbeing. We also provide commissioners and policy makers with clear and rigorous evidence of this impact to demonstrate the need for music therapy services to be sustainably funded.

We’re currently working with 30 different partner organisations who are supporting people with their mental health. We work with pupils in mainstream and in Special Educational Needs (SEN) schools. Out of the pupils we work with in SEN schools, 92% of the people we asked last year said that music therapy improved their mental health. For our work with adults (in hospitals, rehabilitation centres, day centres, care homes), 92% of the people we asked last year said that music therapy enhanced their quality of life.