Musical Care During the Beginning of Life
Pathways for Implementing and Equitably Scaling Up Musical Care
Musical Care seeks to expand, and build evidence and policy for, the important role music practices can play in the first stages of life in the United Kingdom.
*NEW DECEMBER 2024*
Policy recommendations for the equitable increase of musical care during the beginning of life in England and Wales are now available. To read the recommendations, with an accompanying video, visit the project website Musical Care Research »
Musical care practices play an important and expanding role throughout the life course and have particular value at the beginning of life. These can include parent and baby groups, music therapy in neonatal intensive care units, and much more. While there is now a substantial evidence base for some of this work, availability of musical care is not equally distributed around the UK or across the various stages of the beginning of life. Activities are not always clearly visible to those who might benefit from them, and there remain barriers to participation.
Through two national co-developed surveys, this research project explores the experience of, and barriers to, musical care during the beginning of life in the UK. Through a series of stakeholder meetings, the project has co-developed policy recommendations for spreading and embedding musical care during the beginning of life more widely in England and Wales.
Project team
Neta Spiro, RCM (PI)
Elizabeth Coombes, USW
Helen Odell-Miller, ARU
Rosie Perkins, RCM
Katie Rose M Sanfilippo, City
Emily Tredget, Happity
Research associate
Caitlin Shaughnessy, RCM
Research assistants
Debi Graham, RCM
Mark Rowles, RCM
Berenice Beverley Zammit, RCM
Supported by
Learn more
Visit the project website Musical Care Research »
Spiro N and Sanfilippo KRM (eds) (2022), Collaborative Insights: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Musical Care Throughout the Life Course, Oxford University Press. ISBN»