Creative Health Economics: New Guidance on Economic Evaluation in Creative Health
Creative Health Economics: New Guidance on Economic Evaluation in Creative Health
- How do we build confidence among funders, commissioners, and policymakers to invest in creative health?
- How do we provide cost and economic evidence to demonstrate value for money?
- How can we support long-term sustainability and embed creative health into the Neighbourhood Model of Health?
Over the past few months we have been researching these questions, and more, as part of a new economic workstream within the Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities research programme. Despite a growing evidence base, a significant stumbling block in the closer relationship between the creative health ecosystem and health, is the lack of a defined business case that sets out the economic basis for commissioning. Through a series of co-production and participatory research activities we have been examining what outcomes matter most to communities, how value is understood and evidenced, and what support is needed to support evaluation feasibility in Creative Health.
Today we are launching two outputs from this study. Our Guidelines on Economic Evaluation in Creative Health, led by leading cultural economist Dr Daniel Fujiwara, provide a framework for the economic evaluation of creative health interventions. As investment in creative health grows, commissioners, funders, providers and government increasingly need credible evidence about whether interventions improve outcomes and represent good use of resources. The purpose of our Guidelines is to help evaluators produce evidence that is proportionate, credible and useful for decision-making, while aligning creative health evaluation with established principles of public-sector appraisal, particularly the HM Treasury Green Book.
Our second guidance document, Creative Health Commissioning: An economic business case for improving population health and reducing health inequalities, is designed as a short practical resource for commissioners to develop local business cases and secure organisational support for Creative Health programmes. The resource is primarily intended for NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), place-based commissioners, neighbourhood health teams, local authorities and their partners. It can be used to:
- develop local Creative Health business cases;
- support commissioning decisions;
- inform neighbourhood health and prevention strategies;
- identify opportunities for partnership working across health, social care, culture and the VCSE sector.
The document provides a strategic, economic and implementation framework that can be adapted to local population needs, existing community assets and commissioning priorities.
To find out more about our Creative Health Economics work join us at one of our forthcoming events:
In partnership with the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance, we invite you to join us on 24th September for a curated discussion exploring soon to be published details of practical guidance for creative health providers on collecting data about participant characteristics, costs, and diverse benefits. We will hear from creative health providers (Odd Arts and Flip of the Coin) whose participation data has been used to generate new economic analyses in our study.
When: 4.00pm - 5.30pm, Thursday 24th September 2026.
Where: Online via Zoom
Book your place here.
On the 22nd October we will be hearing from some of the researchers involved in growing the evidence base for Creative Health Economics, including Daniel Fujiwara who has been leading our economic analyses. Daniel and team will be joined by Prof Vicky Karkou (Arts4Us, Edge Hill University) and Greg Flynn (Bangor University) who will share details of an upcoming systematic review on the Economic Impact of the Arts on the Health and Wellbeing of Children and Young People. Dr Feifei Bu and Prof Daisy Fancourt (UCL) will share details of a recent study assessing the impact of social prescribing on health service utilisation.
When: 12noon - 1.30pm, Thursday 22nd October 2026.
Where: Online via Zoom
Book your place here.
The MCA Creative Health Economics Team (see below) are extremely grateful to many wonderful contributors and collaborators from across health and culture. Please read the individual reports to see details of our collaborators:
Fujiwara, D., Dolan, P., Muelas, A., Segarra, E., Ruiz, C., Newton, U., McNeill, E., de Andrade, M., Fancourt, D., Mundra, J. and Chatterjee, H.J. (2026). Guidelines on Economic Evaluation in Creative Health. London: University College London. Available from: https://ncch.org.uk/uploads/Guidelines-on-Economic-Evaluation-in-Creative-Health.pdf
McNeill, E., Newton, U., de Andrade, M., Fancourt, D., Fujiwara, D., Mundra, J., Moss, D., Rule, E., Hobart, E., Sutcliffe, A. & Chatterjee, H.J. (2026). Creative Health Commissioning: An economic business case for improving population health and reducing health inequalities. London: University College London. Available from: https://ncch.org.uk/uploads/Creative-Health-Commissioning_An-Economic-Business-Case.pdf
MCA Creative Health Economics Team
Prof Helen Chatterjee (MCA Programme Director, UCL)
Dr Elaine McNeill (UCL)
Prof Daisy Fancourt (UCL)
Dr Daniel Fujiwara (TSC Impact & Harmon)
Professor Paul Dolan (London School of Economics)
Uisce Newton (University of Edinburgh)
Prof Marisa de Andrade (University of Edinburgh)
Alberto Muelas (Harmon Consulting)
Elena Segarra (Harmon Consulting)
Carlos Ruiz (Harmon Consulting)
Jag Mundra (National Academy for Social Prescribing)
For further information see: https://ncch.org.uk/resources/creative-health-economics-the-economic-business-case-for-creative-health
Or contact: community.assets@ucl.ac.uk
