Executive summary Strategic plan 2025-30 Music and technology, to contribute to a world where everyone means something, and they know it.
Noise Solution’s vision is for Linktree (for video and reports referenced in this doc) www.noisesolution.org
Making music helps us build relationships by facilitating three key psychological needs identified in SDT*
AUTONOMY
Feel in control
Musicians support each participant to create whatever music they want to make, how they want to make it, what is captured about their experience and who they want to share it with.
COMPETENCE
Feel good at something
People often feel music is complicated to make. We enable any participant, whatever experience they have, to experience feelings of success creating their music, easily and quickly.
RELATEDNESS
Feel seen
Each person shares their digital story, encouraging positive feedback from the people they care about. Participant and those watching are equally part of the process. This allows the participant to feel 'seen'.
* Self Determination Theory (Deci and Ryan) One of the worlds most evidenced frameworks to understand well-being
The more hours we do the greater the impact we have on wellbeing for some of the most vulnerable
Using an NHS Wellbeing tool we halved low well-being/ tripled high wellbeing
*Read how we measured wellbeing
*Read how cost savings were estimated
Change in levels of well-being pre and post Noise Solution (n370).
Independently estimated savings to families and systems of £6.46 Million in 2024 alone (*see Costello report)
Why are we needed
• There is huge addressable need in the Eastern region for young people facing challenges in education/mental health/neurodivergence.
• Cambridgeshire alone has an estimated 34,000 young people alone with diagnosable mental health challenges.
• Persistent absence and suspension rates have doubled in Suffolk post pandemic.
• Young women, those transitioning to adult mental health care, and those who are LGBTQ+ cause the most concern for services or have the lowest wellbeing when surveyed. What’s the #1 indicator of success in any Intervention to help… It is relationships
Why we’re worth supporting
23 National awards, since 2019
including being a UK top 100 Social Enterprise 7 years running
Bringing families and key workers together, in a way no one else can, through our secure digital platform
Academic rigour in our model and evaluation. Including an MEd from Cambridge and multiple external masters and PhDs
Strength based as a way of working, in a world of deficit based approaches
Three tiers of need offer
Prior to 2025 we had a ‘one size fits all’ 20 hour offer. We have since developed a three tier offer designed to provide the right level of support depending on each participant’s need. An offer that is flexible enough to allow us to deescalate that need (and its cost to services) as people progress through the programme.
LOW: 6 months weekly group work, engaging with Noise Solution peers. Alongside monthly 1:1 with the musician - A step down progression route from Mid or High
MID: 20 hours mentoring 1:1 In the community, half in a studio, enhanced by their digital story. Starting point or a progression route from High. People can start here or be deescalated from our High offer
HIGH: Planned engagement phase, in partnership with professionals, 1:1 mentoring, enhanced by their digital story. Deescalation route to Mid
Some of the numbers
• 5180 hours delivered in 2024 working with 250 young people
• Average and mean participant age: 14
• 1 CEO, 1 Project manager, 1 Operations manager, 1 Admin manager, 1 Admin
• Twenty five musicians working in the community,
• Working in partnership with fifteen studios
• Statistically significant impact on well-being
• Social Return On Investment: £6.46 Million
• £12.50 returned for every £1 spent
• Turnover 2024: £520,700
• 2025 on course for £700,000
Identified areas to increase our reach
We know clearly that education is our largest funder and the majority of that work is Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. In 2024 we also had a strong rate of referral from local government in Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire. While our referrals from mental health occur mainly in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
If you look at where we’ve not developed relationships and subsequently not yet receiving referrals, we see a clear roadmap for developing further reach.
What that should mean by 2030
Numbers are great but stories bring them to life
"In terms of interventions, it is probably the best intervention I have encountered. This programme transforms lives."
Special Educational Needs Coordinator, Suffolk
To see and read more of our stories visit our website stories page here
What helps us get there: Core costs ideas around..
Covering core costs of shifting some musicians to a full time contract: Since 2009 musicians have been freelancers, we’ve reached a critical mass where we feel it may make financial sense to mix that workforce and make some roles permanent contracts, to have those initial roles funded allows us to test safely.
Covering core costs of developing an external operations role: We are a small core team, with only so many hours in a week. There are opportunities to develop an external project operations specialist, helping us make the new ideas a reality.
Covering core costs of technology development: Our use of technology to have, demonstrate and understand our outcomes is unique but developing technology - to show the rest of the sector. What’s possible is expensive. I.e we would love to access Tableau (a Salesforce aligned software for visualising data, but licences are expensive. With this licence just one thing we could do would be to display our impacts live ‘in real time’ on our website - which would be groundbreaking. One of many possible tech innovations we would like to do.
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