Creativity and the Curriculum: Embedding Creative Health in Education
NCCH evidence summary: How creativity supports children’s mental health and wellbeing in schools.
The National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) promotes creativity for healthy lives, advancing good practice, research, and policy to embed creative health across health, social care, and wider systems. In the government response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report (2025), the NCCH is delighted to see that the Department for Education (DfE) is placing creativity at the centre of a rebalanced education system.
Why creativity matters for mental health and learning
Evidence summarised below shows that creativity supports children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing, promotes a sense of belonging, and improves life skills and future outcomes. Creativity has been used effectively as part of whole-school approaches to mental health and wellbeing. Schools can help to tackle inequalities by ensuring universal access to creative opportunities.
There is good evidence linking creative engagement with improved mental health and wellbeing in children and young people. The mechanisms for this can be:
- Biological mechanisms, influencing physiological symptoms of depression and anxiety;
- Psychological mechanisms, promoting self-expression, confidence, and self-esteem;
- Social mechanisms, facilitating connection, belonging, and inclusion.
Studies by Wellcome (Pote, 2021), UCL (Fancourt et al., 2023), and the World Health Organization (Fancourt & Finn, 2019) highlight that creative activity reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression, supports resilience, and enhances social connection.
Programmes such as Big Noise (Sistema Scotland) and the In Harmony Programme, Liverpool showed that sustained creative education improves not only wellbeing but also educational attainment, emotional development, and community cohesion. Arts-based interventions have proven effective as part of whole-school approaches to mental health, with improvements in behaviour, self-regulation, and school engagement.
Addressing inequalities and supporting opportunity
Ensuring equitable access to creative opportunities is essential for tackling inequalities in health and education. Studies show that children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to engage in arts and cultural activities (Mak & Fancourt, 2021). Embedding creative activity within the curriculum ensures that all children can benefit, regardless of background or circumstance.
Programmes such as the Arts Lab Cornwall, Mortal Fools’ Melva, and the STAR Project in the North East of England demonstrated how creative partnerships between schools, local authorities, and cultural organisations can reduce inequalities, promote inclusion, and build community resilience.
By embedding creativity into the curriculum, DfE can help to create a system that supports every child’s health, wellbeing, and potential, building resilience, reducing inequality, and preparing pupils for the challenges of the future.
The case studies and research presented in this article can be found in this briefing report: How creativity supports children’s mental health and wellbeing in schools.
Further information
- The NCCH roundtable session on Creativity and Wellbeing in the Education System is summarised here: https://ncch.org.uk/blog/roundtable-on-education-and-training-session-1-creativity-for-health-and-wellbeing-in-the-education-system.
For more information, check out the Creative Health Review (2023) that has gathered evidence that shows the benefits of creative health in relation to major current challenges, and examples of where this is already working in practice here: https://ncch.org.uk/creative-health-review.
