Why
We believe everyone has creative potential and that creativity can lead to healthier lives and communities. Active engagement with the arts and culture, whether through our own creative practice or through our enjoyment of the creative practice of others, is beneficial for the health and wellbeing of us all.
The 2017 Creative Health report documents over 1000 published studies outlining the role of arts and creativity in supporting health across the life course. Subsequently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) scoping review: What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and wellbeing? collated studies demonstrating the role of the arts and culture in prevention, promotion, management and treatment of ill health and is intended to inform policy across the WHO European Region and beyond.
We are particularly keen to work in the space between the established worlds of arts, culture, health and social care, exploring how co-production and collaboration can provide new ways of thinking about the intersection between our creativity and our health.
Health inequalities are a key priority for the NCCH, reflecting the wider policy environment within which we work. The increasing gap in inequalities was evidenced in Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years On, published in 2020. Lack of access to cultural and creative opportunities too often mirrors other inequalities. Working with communities, developing co-production methods with people who use services and developing culturally specific activities and opportunities are key to challenging inequalities in health and in the arts and culture.
Policy
Our policy work, building on the Creative Health Report (2017) and subsequent Creative Health Review, demonstrates how creative health can support the government to achieve its cross-departmental missions. In particular, creative health should be integral to a healthcare system that prioritises prevention and community-based approaches, incorporating the wider determinants of health and health inequalities. With devolution widening across the country, creative health can help combined authorities improve health, wellbeing and prosperity in their populations.
The NCCH provides the secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Creative Health which was formed following the election of the Labour Government in 2024. A programme of roundtable events in parliament is exploring the role of creative health in relation to the three shifts identified as priorities for the 10 Year Health plan. Policy and evidence briefings are provided to inform ministers and other policy makers.
Research
The NCCH is linked to University College London through our trustee, Professor Helen Chatterjee, and has a working relationship with the staff and students on the Creative Health Masters programme at UCL.
The Royal Society for Public Health Special Interest Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing was a research partner throughout the Creative Health inquiry and continues to be an important research partner for the NCCH.
The NCCH has research relationships with a range of universities and research centres working in this field including King’s College London, and the Research Centre for Arts and Wellbeing at Edge Hill University.
Creative Health Review
The NCCH and All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing (APPG) Creative Health Review highlights the potential for creative health to help tackle pressing issues in health, social care and more widely. A panel of commissioners, with a wide breadth of expertise, translated its findings into recommendations for policymakers to encourage and inform the development of cross-governmental creative health strategy.
Health Inequalities Research Programme
The NCCH is partner in a six-year national research programme: 'Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities’ funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in collaboration with Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and Medical Research Council (MRC).
Find out more about 'Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities’ >>