How Can Music Prove Its Social Value?

How Orchestras Live and East Riding of Yorkshire Council used social value measurement to tell a clearer story about the difference live orchestral music makes in communities.

For many cultural organisations, the challenge is not the quality of the work itself, but finding the right language to communicate its value to funders, councils and partners beyond the arts.

This was the starting point for Orchestras Live and East Riding of Yorkshire Council. Together, they deliver Classically Yours, a programme established in 2016 to bring high-quality live orchestral music to communities where cultural engagement has historically been low and concert infrastructure is limited or unavailable.

By 2022, the partners had a clear sense that the programme was making a meaningful difference. They needed a simple, credible way to demonstrate that impact in conversations about investment, partnership and long-term public value.

“Measuring social value helps us understand our impact, improve our work and speak a shared language across the Council. It also strengthens the case for inclusive, high-quality cultural programmes and helps unlock investment from partners beyond the arts.” Nicola Dixon, Creative Programmes Manager, East Riding of Yorkshire Council

What they set out to do

In 2022, the social value engine pilot was built into an Arts Council England Project Grant application. The partners set out to build a stronger evidence base for Classically Yours, using Social Return on Investment methodology to measure the programme’s wider public benefit and translate social outcomes into financial terms that non-arts partners could recognise and use.

The Social Value Engine was co-developed and is co-owned by East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Rose Regeneration. Created in response to the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, it is now one of the UK’s leading Social Value Institute-accredited SROI platforms.

The Social Value Engine uses the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a shared framework, enabling partners to connect cultural participation with outcomes already familiar to councils, health partners and funders, including health and wellbeing, reduced inequalities, sustainable communities and education.

How the pilot worked

The team began with Social Value Engine training for East Riding’s Arts Team and an introduction to the platform for Orchestras Live. They then delivered a 360° evaluation of a 2023 project in Withernsea, testing whether the Impact & Insight evaluation toolkit they used for their evaluation could work with the Social Value Engine.

After a successful initial pilot, partners then tested the social value engine across Classically Yours. Between January 2023 and October 2024, survey data was collected across eight projects and events, capturing responses from 838 participants from 30 community groups and 1,874 audience members across 14 concerts.

Crucially, the team started with data they were already collecting for Arts Council England and other reporting requirements, then mapped it against what the Social Value Engine needed. This practical focus meant the pilot did not create a wholly new evaluation burden.

What they found and why it matters

The pilot showed that Classically Yours was generating significant social value and gave partners clearer evidence to support advocacy, investment and long-term planning.

• £230,357 invested
• £1,357,128 in social value generated
• £5.69 in social value for every £1 invested

The analysis showed particularly strong outcomes linked to health and wellbeing, reduced inequalities and sustainable communities. Key contributing outcomes included an increased appetite for engaging in arts and culture events, stronger feelings of connection to other people and the wider community, and improved confidence, self-esteem and mental wellbeing.

In 2023/24, the programme delivered against six UN Sustainable Development Goals:

This changed more than the reporting. It gave Orchestras Live and East Riding of Yorkshire Council a shared language for decision-making, helping them explain the value of live orchestral music in ways that could resonate across public health, economic development and regeneration.

The partners now use the evidence to reposition arts and culture within public policy and devolution conversations, refine what is working across the programme and strengthen funding discussions with a clear, financial account of the difference made.

The approach was recognised with the Institute of Economic Development’s award for Outstanding Impact: Empowering Communities Through Social Value. The judging panel praised it as a pioneering approach to embedding social value across cultural services.

For Orchestras Live, the learning also fed into a strategic offer. Its Impact and Evaluation Services, launched in November 2024, were co-created with staff and partners to help orchestras, music education hubs and cultural organisations tell a clearer story about the social value they create.

“We’re embedding the Social Value Engine into our business model and supporting a growing cohort of organisations to apply it to arts and cultural activity. By sharing that knowledge, we can create value not only for our partners, but for the wider sector.” Sarah Derbyshire, Chief Executive, Orchestras Live

Find out more

To explore the work behind this case study, learn more about Orchestras Live’s Impact and Evaluation Services, the Classically Yours programme, the Social Value Engine and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

• Orchestras Live Impact and Evaluation Services
• Social Value Engine
• UN Sustainable Development Goals
• A new methodology to demonstrate social value

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