New research collaboration on the impact of the Lullaby project with Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
I am delighted to be starting a new evaluation research project with Live Music Now (LMN) in June 2025, commissioned by Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. For nearly two years now, LMN professional musicians have been delivering the Lullaby project as part of the award-winning Arts for Health programme at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool. Based on the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), professional musicians are paired with women and families to co-create original lullabies for their babies who are receiving specialist, on-site treatment and care.
Modelled on earlier evaluation studies of LMN Lullaby projects in Cheshire and Merseyside (funded by the NHS Improving Me women’s health and maternity programme 2021-22) and Swansea Bay (funded by Arts Council Wales 2022-23), the evaluation will use qualitative methods to produce a narrative analysis of participating women’s and families’ experiences of and reflections on the Lullaby project. The evaluation will also engage with LMN professional musicians, NICU staff and wider stakeholder networks to explore the contextual value of Lullaby as a creative intervention in high-risk clinical settings.
Our Lullaby research portfolio will be shared at a series of international knowledge exchange events in July, including the LMN-led Unlocking Futures: Music is Medicine for Perinatal Mental Health Symposium in Cardiff on 18th July and the inaugural Music and Parental Wellbeing Symposium at Royal College of Music London (and online) on 22-23 July 2025.