Creativity and Children and Young People’s Mental Health Roundtable
Reflections from the latest APPG on Creative Health session
Hosted on Tuesday 3rd June 2025, by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Creative Health, and the National Centre for Creative Health (Secretariat for APPG)
“I write a song and it’s like my subconscious writes it, and I realise what I’m struggling with, what I’m not really struggling with, and what I’m happy and passionate about” - Vanessa Carr, The Music Works
In the latest session of the APPG on Creative Health, chaired by Dr Simon Opher MP, experts from across research, policy, practice and lived experience came together to highlight the vital role arts, culture and creativity can play in supporting the mental health of children and young people. Given the current crisis in mental health our children and young people are facing, the voices in the room added support to our call for all children and young people to be given opportunities to access creative, arts and cultural activities to support and improve their mental health and wellbeing.
In this blog we summarise the main themes of the session. You can watch the full session back here -
Addressing a crisis in children and young people’s mental health
Professor Daisy Fancourt, who leads the Social Biobehavioural Research Group at UCL, outlined the scale of the mental health crisis, highlighting rapidly rising levels of mental health conditions in response to a shift to online interaction, concerns about climate change, and wider social issues such as poverty. This has resulted in overburdened services and long waiting lists, meaning that many young people are unable to access treatment, or wait so long for support that their mental health worsens.
For Baroness Anne Longfield, founder of the Centre for Young Lives, this deterioration in mental health correlates to a decrease in access to creative opportunities both in and out of school since the pandemic. The percentage of schools offering GCSEs in creative subjects has fallen dramatically, and extracurricular opportunities are subject to geographical and socio-economic inequalities, with the poorest children three times less likely to access creative activities. Schools, therefore, can be vital in maintaining mental health and wellbeing, in fostering a sense of belonging, and providing early intervention for children experiencing mental health problems.
“Harnessing the power of creativity in and around schools is part of the solution to really help children to thrive” – Baroness Anne Longfield
The evidence
Based on her extensive research, Professor Daisy Fancourt set out the diverse physiological, psychological and social mechanisms through which creativity influences mental health and wellbeing for children and young people. For example, we know that the arts can reduce anxiety and depression, help to regulate emotions, and provide purpose and meaning. Creativity can support young people to explore their identity and build new social connections. Creative engagement leads to improved confidence and self-esteem, and it can improve behavioural outcomes. Daisy’s recent research with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport also shows the financial benefits that investing in the arts for young people can provide, even before NHS savings are taken into account.
“On a day-to-day basis, arts engagement for young people brings them individual wellbeing benefits that are valued at over £1000 per year per person. For society, this equates to over £800m savings in terms of enhanced wellbeing and improved productivity”. – Professor Daisy Fancourt
Beyond the UK, Christopher Bailey, Arts and Health Lead at the World Health Organisation, highlighted the impact the arts have had in international contexts, with examples from his work with children experiencing the trauma of war in Gaza and Ukraine.
Experiences in practice
“Through our work, we know that the most powerful intervention for a young person’s mental health isn’t always found in a clinic. Sometimes it is found through creativity where healing happens through connection, by giving them a voice and helping them feel empowered.” – Malaki Patterson, The Music Works
We heard from grassroots and community-based organisations using creativity to support young people’s mental health, and from the young people who have benefited from these programmes. Key ingredients for success included fostering safe, supportive and culturally informed spaces, facilitated by relatable role models, with peer support, allowing rapport and trusting relationships to develop over time.
Within these safe spaces, providing the opportunity for young people to engage in a diverse range of creative activities, in a way that feels comfortable to them, encourages agency and freedom, allowing young people to externalise and understand their inner world.
“Unlike medication, which often focuses on reducing symptoms, creativity offers something more; it reduces symptoms and also helps us feel, process, and find meaning and purpose.”- Rod Kippen, The Horsfall
The creative process can support autonomy, confidence and connection, leading to life-skills such as resilience, leadership, and the development of healthy relationships that can benefit young people as they move into education, employment and the wider community.
“Creative arts is not just a good thing to do, it is a life source for some of these young people.” – Nathan Dennis, First Class Foundation
Creativity provides a means for communication and self-expression beyond words, when vocabulary can act as a barrier. This is exemplified through Beyond Words, founded by Baroness Sheila Hollins, which provides picture-based books to support people with additional communication needs to explore feelings and emotions. The books have been used in a range of settings, including with people with learning disabilities, in primary schools and with refugees.
The creative approach can be in contrast to support provided in schools or through CAMHS, which often relies on talking therapies and can be delivered in a clinical environment.
“When I came to the Horsfall, it was almost like my CAMHS experience should have been identical to what was done at Horsfall. What was done was so beneficial to me, and to other people, that I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t being done everywhere else” – Hafsa Hamid, The Horsfall
Embedding creative health into mental health pathways
In recognition of the power of creativity to make a difference, a number of programmes have embedded creativity into mental health care pathways. Dr Catherine Jenkins described how Hywel Dda Health Board in Wales worked with arts partners to develop new pathways of care through the Arts Boost programme. Initially designed to provide support for young people on CAMHS waiting lists, positive evaluation has seen the programme incorporated as a routine treatment offer rather than an add-on:
“So it’s part of the offer we give young people, and it's about getting the right support, at the right time, in the right place for the right people.” – Dr Catherine Jenkins
Professor Vicky Karkou, Director of the Research Centre for Arts and Wellbeing, Edge Hill University, has researched how the Arts for the Blues programme, an evidence-based creative psychological therapy, has been scaled across North West England and is now delivered in four CAMHS. A new project, Arts4Us, will investigate how to make arts-based interventions that support the mental health of children and young people aged 9-13 more widely accessible and integrated into current service provision.
Cultural organisations are working with health partners and using their spaces to support the mental health of young people from their local communities. Director of Creative Engagement at the Southbank Centre, Alexandra Brierly, described how the Southbank Centre has shifted its arts and wellbeing programme to focus on the mental health and wellbeing of young people in Lambeth, establishing a community space and cultural offer in partnership with South East London Integrated Care Board and local grassroots organisations.
Dr Mayura Deshpande, Associate Registrar for Policy Support at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, has found creativity to be an important facilitator of trust and relationships in acute care settings, and that young people with severe mental health conditions respond well to a creative health offer.
“My experience has been at the severe mental illness end of the spectrum, but clearly there is a big and increasing role for these sorts of offerings across all of the child and adolescent mental health spectrum and beyond.” - Dr Mayura Deshpande
Incorporating creative health into mental health pathways for children and young people can relieve pressure on an overburdened system and provide children and young people with more immediate support. Daisy Fancourt’s team at UCL is exploring pathways through which children and young people can access creativity through social prescribing whilst they wait to access CAMHS and as part of step-down care after psychological therapies.
Creativity offers a more personalised approach to mental health care, allowing young people to identify their own personal goals and explore creative approaches to achieve this.
“With a creative approach, a young person is actually able to design a therapeutic process that works for them, and it’s the skills that come out of that that go a long way.” – Gemma O’Brien, Lived Experience Expert and Researcher
Creative pathways can also diversify the mental health support on offer. This can be particularly important for marginalised communities, or to meet the needs of neurodiverse young people or young people with disabilities. A choice of creative activities allows young people to engage at a level they are comfortable with.
“At the moment, in therapeutic interventions in CAMHS services, apart from the waiting lists, apart from the backlog of provision, we also have extremely limited optionality” – Professor Vicky Karkou
For Nathan Dennis, working with young black boys in Birmingham, how the service is presented is important. Labelling a service as a mental health intervention can cause stigma and put young people off engaging.
“We wouldn't refer to our young people as clients. They're just part of the First Class family.” – Nathan Dennis, First Class Foundation
Partnership working and co-production
Much creative health work is carried out by grassroots, community-based organisations, which have been able to develop innovative, creative programmes in response to local need due to their longstanding presence and trusted relationships in the communities they work with. The importance of recognising, respecting and adequately resourcing this work as we advocate for the spread and scale of creative health was emphasised in the session.
Co-production of services with the young people who will access them is also vital.
“Any type of work around creative mental health needs to be co-produced. Young people need to be front and centre of the work – coming up with the ideas, coming up with the strategies, coming up with the thoughts…” – Nathan Dennis, First Class Foundation
“Young people almost never have any access to meaningful change or access to any sort of power at all. Being able to take control of the services people access just makes sense. I think co-production should be incorporated into every single service.” – Hafsa Hamid, The Horsfall
Our Asks
This APPG session informs our wider campaign to raise awareness of how arts, culture and creative activities benefit young people’s mental health and wellbeing.
We are making the following call for change:
All children and young people should be given opportunities to access creative, arts and cultural activities, where clinically appropriate, to support and improve their mental health and well-being:
- While on CAMHS waiting lists
- As part of their CAMHS treatment and recovery pathways, including in the community
- As a preventative and early intervention approach in primary care, in all education settings, and at any stage of their pathway as a service user, as part of all social prescribing activity, and through proactive commissioning
Further Information
A recording of the session is available here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjzqob_ENK4
Find the agenda and speaker biographies here - https://ncch.org.uk/uploads/AGENDA-Children-and-Young-Peoples-Mental-Health-and-Creative-Health-030625.pdf
Read our NCCH briefing on Creativity and Children and Young People’s Mental Health here – https://ncch.org.uk/uploads/APPG-on-Creative-Health-Creativity-and-Children-and-Young-Peoples-Mental-Health.pdf
The National Centre for Creative Health provides the secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Creative Health. More information is available here - https://ncch.org.uk/appg-on-creative-health
