Access and inclusion

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) plays an important role in the character and culture of your group. It shows your members, potential members and the world in general that you are taking action to ensure you are an open, inclusive and welcoming group.

In this recording of our webinar, guest speakers discussed how to prevent and manage hearing loss.

Many of us suffer a smaller or greater hearing loss as we get older, particularly if we are involved in music-making, whether acoustic or amplified. This event talked about two aspects of this: how to prevent greater hearing loss which may be due to being exposed to loud noise and/or music in your private or working life; and what you can do if you do experience hearing loss, tinnitus or other issues. 

We welcomed the following expert speakers:

What is social prescribing and how can your music group benefit from it?

Social prescribing is part of the relatively new NHS personalised care programme and a way for GPs and local agencies to refer people to a link worker, who takes a holistic approach to people’s health and wellbeing. They then connect people to community groups and statutory services for practical and emotional support.

Making Music has partnered with the Singing for Health Network and other organisations to publish free downloadable guides on social prescribing for leaders of music groups across the UK, and for social prescribers (also known as link workers).

In this recording of our webinar (original event 20 May 2022), guest speakers discussed what social prescribing is and how it could be a huge opportunity for music groups. 

Social prescribing is a key feature of the NHS’ long-term plan, which aims to strengthen the link between the local community and social activities such as music, sport, and arts. In this webinar, we discussed who does the prescribing, what kind of people are referred and what it would mean for your group to become ‘social prescribing friendly’.

We welcomed:

Your group has to communicate lots of different information to many different people – participants, audiences, committee members, employees. Making your communications inclusive means everyone can access the information they need to be, and feel, fully included in your activities.  

This resource is about planning and running events that are accessible and inclusive. ‘Events’ in this resource means any activity where people come together that a Making Music member group might run including: 

• A rehearsal 
• A performance 
• A meeting 
• A workshop 
• A social event 
• An online event 

In this resource we will be considering the general set-up of any event. 

When you are developing accessible and inclusive activity and practice, it’s important to connect with the knowledge and experience of people with direct experience of barriers.

This resource lists some of the specialist organisations who provide resources, service and training. Use these links to find out more about any challenges specific to your members or that you are likely to find in your community.  

Everyone who plays music and sings, or who is a regular concert attendee knows the value of these activities – for their happiness, health, social lives and the richness of the life of their community. But as people who organise music activities and events, how can we make these benefits accessible to everyone who would like to take part, and make our group environments inclusive and diverse?

In this recording of our guest speaker webinar (original event 19 February 2021), Vick Bain (Interim Director of Strategy at Attitude is Everything) and Rebecca Di Rollo (Drake Music Scotland) discuss creating and running accessible and inclusive music events.