Croydon council’s creative health programme one year on: a dedicated local authority team as centralised resource for a creative health ‘ecosystem’

This case study from the London borough of Croydon, a large, diverse local authority in South London, was delivered through four strands of activity: network development; community grant schemes; targeted interventions; and sector advocacy, initial evaluation demonstrates the programme is effectively reaching communities at risk of health inequalities and having positive impacts on health and wellbeing. The study demonstrates how an embedded approach to creative health can increase public health’s reach amongst key communities.

A growing body of evidence shows the benefits of arts, culture and creativity for health and wellbeing across a wide range of populations. A scoping review by the World Health Organization, drawing on evidence from 3,000 studies, highlights the role of creative health in preventing and treating ill health across the life course. The UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing also recommends embedding creative health within local authority strategies.

Building on the borough’s year as London Borough of Culture in 2023/24 – which saw more than 600,000 residents and visitors take part in a year-long programme of public arts and cultural events – Croydon’s Public Health team took this opportunity to act. Working with the Culture, Leisure and Libraries team, Public Health funded a dedicated Creative Health Programme, supported by three full-time staff, to explore how creative health could help reduce health inequalities in the borough.

The team began with an intelligence-gathering phase between September and December 2024. During this period, they engaged with more than 180 partners from across the council, the voluntary, community and faith sector (VCFS), and the arts and health sectors to understand priorities, challenges and opportunities.

• A range of initiatives that could be considered creative health already existed, although providers’ understanding of the term and adherence to the Creative Health Quality Framework varied.
• The number of activities, size of the borough and short-term funding of projects made it nearly impossible for Council, Health or VCFS partners to remain up to date, resulting in siloed working and ineffective signposting.
• Creative health providers experienced challenges in accessing and partnering with health and statutory partners, with those services demonstrating varying levels of understanding of the benefits and potential of creative health.
• Practitioners identified development needs, including networking opportunities and training in business and creative health skills.

From this, the team identified three overarching objectives for the Programme:

• To develop a more robust, connected and sustainable creative health sector in Croydon.
• To ensure more residents, especially those at risk of health inequalities, receive benefits of creative health opportunities.
• To raise awareness of and support for creative health amongst partners such as GPs, Social Prescribing Link Workers, social workers and Council services.

Four activity strands were devised to achieve these objectives:

• Creative Health Network
• community grant schemes
• targeted interventions
• advocating for the sector.

The Creative Health Network launched in January 2025. It brings together individuals and organisations from across sectors to network, share practice and help shape the work of the council’s Creative Health team. One year on, the network has more than 170 members. The network provides monthly newsletters sharing funding, training and opportunities to get involved, and quarterly meet-ups, held both in person and online. These sessions offer space for collaboration, sharing practice and discussing the needs of the sector.

Crucially, the network members also contributed to the 2024 Director of Public Health Annual Report, Creating a Healthier Croydon. This report formally endorsed creative health activity in the borough, demonstrated impacts on residents’ health, wellbeing and pride in place, and shared a snapshot of existing work.

One year-round programme of free training kicked off in September 2025 covering a wide range of topics requested by network members. From marketing and fundraising to anti-racism, inter-generational work and practical art-form workshop days, sessions are programmed in three-month phases, allowing suggestions for new topics to be incorporated quickly.

These hands-on sessions are really nourishing. I also like the programme of strategic learning – really helpful to my business side.
– Training attendee

While the full network is large and diverse, smaller ‘working groups’ have begun to form, connecting people around specific populations or needs. For example, a Dementia Working Group now meets and aims to map current provision, identify cold spots, improve signposting and explore collaborative funding opportunities. Working groups allow targeted work to be led by local providers, with administrative support from the Creative Health team. 

As funding is often identified as the main barrier to creative health’s effectiveness in communities, two community grant schemes provide seed funding for activities that support key areas of identified need.

‘Croydon Loves You’ grants support participatory projects that engage communities in creative activities to improve needs such as low mood, anxiety, social isolation or physical fitness. The scheme aims to support both new and experienced providers, so grants are available at three levels (£500-£1,500, £1,500-£5,000 and £5,000-£15,000) depending on the track record of practitioners and length of projects. The application process emphasises adherence to the Creative Health Quality Framework, ensuring applicants consider best practice when devising and delivering their projects, and individualised evaluation plans are agreed with each successful grantee to monitor reach and impact on participants.

40 Croydon Loves You grants were distributed in 2025/26, with projects designed to reach a number of target groups, including:

• global majority adults with mental health needs
• unemployed adults
• LGBT+ adults and young people
• adults with learning disabilities
• people experiencing homelessness
• asylum seeker/refugees
• people living with dementia and family carers
• young people at risk of becoming NEET.

Evaluation from the first six months of funded project delivery (up to November 2025) showed that grants were successful in reaching people at risk of health inequalities, and supporting a wide range of needs, in particular with regards to mental health. 

• 94.9 per cent of participant respondents felt ‘quite a bit’ or ‘completely’ relaxed during sessions, including 91.5 per cent of people who reported high levels of anxiety or panic.
• 96.3 per cent of attendees reported pride in their achievements, including 89.9 per cent with self-reported low self-esteem.
• 96.3 per cent of respondents reported feeling ‘quite a bit’ or ‘completely’ better as a result of taking part in projects. 

Before joining the project I’d been off work for around 4 months because of difficulties with my mental health so my mood and motivation generally were quite low, and my confidence was very low...I [felt] relaxed afterwards because I found myself not thinking about anything other than the activities I was doing for the entire hour ... I would definitely recommend this project. It was a really great way for me to gain some confidence and get back into trying things out of my comfort zone. 
             – ‘Artful Mind’ participant (project by Wellbeing4Me)

Creative Health Information Event grants support one-off cultural events that also provide relevant health information, messaging and/or access to health services. For example, Aaja Nachle: Bolly Good Fun by Apsara Arts brought together more than 100 older South Asian adults for an afternoon of Bollywood music, dance and food. While audiences came for the experience, they were also introduced to local health professionals such as GPs, smoking cessation services and blood pressure checks, sharing crucial information in a fun and supportive environment. Other events focused on prostate cancer in black men, black women’s health and mental health support for people experiencing low socioeconomic status. 

Four Creative Health Information Events in 2025 reached more than 450 residents, 71 per cent from global majority backgrounds, with 88.5 per cent of survey respondents across events reporting being better informed about the relevant topic(s) as a result of attending.

In addition to providing funding for projects, grant schemes also serve to improve fundraising capabilities of individuals and small local organisations. Applicants can access support throughout the application process via Q&A sessions, Creative Health Quality Framework workshops, and 30 minute advice surgeries. The Creative Health team also provides support around risk assessments, safeguarding and event management where required.

To tackle more complex priorities involving wider determinants of health identified during the initial intelligence gathering phase, a ‘targeted intervention’ strand was developed to provide more comprehensive support for areas of high need. Following a desk-top review of existing evidence and the potential for creative health to support identified needs, four topics were selected to be prioritised in 2025 with budget allocated based on the complexity and size of need:

• children aged 5-10 with experience of domestic abuse
• year 7-9 students finding school difficult due to suspected or diagnosed autism
• asylum seeking women at risk of poor mental health
• adult social care staff training.

Each targeted intervention is managed by the Creative Health team and co-designed with a cross-sector steering group comprising council services, health partners, VCFS providers and people with lived experience. Interventions are informed by evidence from literature reviews, practitioner expertise and lived experience, with initial ideas tested with broader focus groups of residents. Based on this design phase, a brief outlining the aims and structure of the intervention is publicised to recruit local providers with the skills and experience to pilot the intervention with target participants. 

During the pilot phase, regular support from the Creative Health team allows for tweaks to the original design to be implemented quickly, with additional support from relevant members of the steering group drawn in where necessary. In this way, interventions are incubated with support from a wide range of stakeholders to create the best possible fit for Croydon. Through developing local skills, connections and evidence for projects, the ultimate aim is for interventions to become attractive to external funding, allowing work to move outside of the Council for ongoing delivery.

A key priority from partners was the need to better link up creative health with health, social care and other statutory providers. 

The Creative Health Team promotes the evidence base and local offers to partners through attending meetings of social prescribers, practice managers and service managers, and presenting to bodies such as the Health and Wellbeing Board. Interactive presentations bringing dance, music and other artists to social workers have proven especially effective in showcasing local initiatives while strengthening understanding, as referrers themselves are able to experience some of the activities and consider service users who would benefit. 

Work is underway to improve referral pathways, including exploring database solutions to make creative health activities more accessible to health practitioners and the public, whilst remaining feasible for small, grassroots providers to manage. This is proving a difficult balance to find, with health and social care colleagues prioritising evidence gathered through formal referral pathways which can sometimes be burdensome for small providers. The team is therefore working to bring together teams from across the council, health and social care to understand the diversity of needs and find the most effective joint solution.

The team also supports colleagues across the council to integrate creative health into their own service delivery. For example, in partnership with Trading Standards, an interactive theatre tour exploring the risks of online gaming and other scams with primary pupils was developed with local children by London Bubble theatre company. Reaching more than 1,200 year 5 pupils, 100 per cent of teachers reported that they felt students were “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to change their online behaviour as a result of the initiative.

One year into programme delivery, a range of positive outcomes are emerging: 

• Co-developing work between the Council and VCFS has fostered new models of collaboration and strengthened cross-sector relationships.
• The local offer is becoming more strategic, with partners increasingly aligning activities to a borough-wide vision.
• Supported grant schemes are reaching target communities while building the sector’s experience, confidence, reach and fundraising capabilities.
• Increasing numbers of council services are integrating creative health principles into their service delivery, supporting Health in All Policies approaches to addressing wider determinants of health.

Although work is ongoing to fully achieve the programme’s aims, early findings indicate investing in central coordinating capacity within the council has contributed to the development of a coherent creative health ecosystem. This ecosystem, in turn, is enhancing the reach of Public Health priorities with residents – especially those at risk of health inequalities – by leveraging existing networks and communities to deliver health promotion, prevention, treatment and management.

This case study highlights the importance of embedding creative health within local authority rather than relying on short-term, project-based funding. Building dedicated capacity within councils can strengthen system leadership, enabling a more strategic approach to ensure creative health contributes directly to local health and wellbeing strategies. It demonstrates the opportunity for local authorities and integrated care systems to align creative health initiatives to the priorities in the ten year plan, including prevention and moving care closer to the community. More broadly, there is an opportunity for national and regional organisations to provide sustainable funding thereby supporting the transition of creative health from innovation to routine practice across health and care systems. 

Lisa Rodio, Creative Health Programme Manager, Croydon Council [email protected].

Fatai Ogunlayi, Consultant in Public Health, Croydon Council,  [email protected] 

1. Mughal R., Polley M., Sabey A. & Chatterjee H.J. (2022) How Arts, Heritage and Culture can support health and wellbeing through social prescribing. NASP.
2. Fancourt D, Finn S. What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? A scoping review. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe; 2019 (Health Evidence Network (HEN) synthesis report 67).
3. All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Arts, Health and Wellbeing. (2017). Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing.
4. Croydon Council (2023) This is Croydon – Impact Report.
5. Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance. (2023). Creative Health Quality Framework.