What is the CaRE Project?
The CaRE Project is an NHS led creative and systemic team development programme offering bespoke, arts-based away days and workshops, both online and in person, with integrated leadership support to inspire new ways of working together.
CaRE supports NHS teams to reflect on challenges, strengthen team culture, and build psychologically safe and compassionate ways of working. Our approach creates meaningful, evidence-based team development experiences that strengthen collaboration, foster resilience, and enhance organisational effectiveness, in line with the CNWL Trust SCARF values: Safe, Compassionate, Accountable, Reflective and Fair.
Since launching in 2020, CaRE has collaborated with 66 teams across various service lines, engaging a total of 891 multidisciplinary staff members.
What We Do
The CaRE Project offers creative, collaborative, and co-designed workshops for healthcare teams at any stage of development. Through arts-based and embodied methods, we create safe spaces for reflection on recent events and to construct shared narratives of team experiences, roles and priorities.
Working with the CNWL SCARF values (Safe, Compassionate, Accountable, Reflective, Fair), the project brings teams together to inspire new ways of thinking and to collectively envision and cultivate a responsive, resilient, and compassionate team culture.
What we provide
• Leadership Engagement: Initial consultation with leaders to co-design interventions that meet team and organisational needs
• Comprehensive Assessment: Understanding your team's unique challenges and dynamics
• Tailored Workshop Design: Bespoke arts-based interventions aligned with your objectives
• Evidence-Based Measurement: Pre and post workshop assessments to track impact
• Summary Report: Detailed feedback and recommendations for ongoing development
• Leadership Debrief: Strategic session with leaders to translate insights into actionable changes
• Team Image: Professional photography capturing your team's creative journey (optional)
• Follow-up Support: Guidance for embedding workshop insights into daily practice, with specific leadership coaching available
Leadership Integration
We recognise that sustainable team development requires engaged leadership. The CaRE Project actively integrates leaders throughout the process:
• Pre-workshop consultation with team leads to align objectives and understand team dynamics
• Leadership participation in workshops to model vulnerability and shared learning
• Bridging hierarchies through creative exercises that flatten traditional structures
• Post-workshop leadership briefing to embed insights and maintain momentum
• Ongoing support for leaders to champion team culture changes
Our approach strengthens the connection between staff and leadership, creating shared accountability and mutual understanding that extends beyond the workshop experience.
Our aims
To support teams to realise their collective potential and shared vision.
• To create safe, compassionate, and inclusive spaces where staff feel valued, heard, and connected.
• To strengthen connections between staff and leadership, fostering accountability, reflection, and shared responsibility.
• To enable reflection, learning, and innovation that sustain situated, responsive, and vital practices.
• To actively embody the CNWL SCARF values to co-construct inclusive, compassionate and collaborative team cultures.
What to expect
• Creative arts-based exercises tailored to your team's needs
• Safe spaces for collective reflection and dialogue
• Team ecosystem mapping and visioning exercises
• Embodied activities to strengthen team dynamics
• Integrated leadership participation and development
• Evidence-based approaches to team development
• Collaborative exploration of team and leadership dynamics
Recent achievements
- The CaRE Project has a paper published in "The Arts in Psychotherapy" journal. Find out more.
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On 17 September 2023, the CaRE Project was invited to the House of Lords to celebrate the achievements of the project during the Covid pandemic alongside other recipients of funding from the Royal College of Nursing.
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The CaRE Project - Artwork on permanent display at Trust Headquarters. Read the full story.
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Dominik Havsteen-Franklin and Jenni de Knoop led a training day in Stockholm, Sweden, on 14 November 2024. The session spotlighted innovative approaches to Mentalization-Based Arts Psychotherapy (MBAP). Find out more.
What teams say…
"I can honestly say this is the single best intervention which I have experienced in my team, and I would recommend this to any team"
Melissa, Head of Midwifery, Gynaecology and Paediatrics
I heard some staff commenting on feeling positive about themselves afterwards and feeling seen by the team in this moment. The day and package you offer is brilliant, and I would recommend this to other teams." – Speech and Language Lead, Brent LD Service
The CaRE Away Day was absolutely fantastic, it was a genuinely enjoyable and meaningful team-building experience. Staff shared that they felt relaxed, valued and heard, which strengthened our team dynamic and morale. We're still feeling the positive impact in the office." – Zehra Emin, CNWL QPP Team Manager
I can't tell you how much we appreciate all that went into the design of the day and ensuring that it met our needs as a team. This is an exceptional initiative that we will absolutely be recommending to other teams." – Fran Lepori, CNWL Trust Head of Lived Experience Workforce
I was pleasantly surprised. The day brought out all the positive aspects of individuals and the team and reminded me of our shared goals and aspirations. I was buzzing with positivity at the end of the day. I felt incredibly proud of the people I am lucky to call colleagues." – Shalini Andrews, Clinical Director for CNWL Bloomsbury Clinic
The CaRE team
The CaRE team are registered arts therapists and trained team development facilitators. Each member of the team specialises in different health care sectors and provides creative skills to promote powerful unified change with your team.
The project lead is Dominik Havsteen-Franklin (Consultant in Arts Psychotherapies) and the practice lead is Jenni de Knoop (Dance Movement Psychotherapist). Members of the team include: Abby Hubbard, Matteo Merla, Katie Dunne, Claire Grant, Diane Eagles, Emily Hoffman, Barbara Kasprzyk, Yara Nasrany, Jen Pullan and Weronika Kucharska.
Get in touch
Ready to transform your team's culture and collaboration?
Email us directly at: cnwl.careproject@nhs.net.