£1m funding boost for Creative Health Leads programme in England

The Baring Foundation has awarded £1 million to support a new national programme designed to embed creative health within health and social care systems across England. The funding, announced by the foundation’s board last week, will be provided over four years to the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH). The grant matches investment from Arts Council England and will enable the roll-out of the Creative Health Leads programme. The initiative aims to place specialist Creative Health Leads within health and care organisations, supporting the integration of arts and creativity into prevention, population health strategies, clinical pathways and neighbourhood-based care models. Between 25 and 30 Creative Health Lead roles are expected to be created over the next three years, with recruitment for the first five positions already underway. The programme builds on the earlier Creative Health Associates pilot, which ran from 2023 to 2026 across seven Integrated Care Boards and tested ways to embed creative health approaches within healthcare systems. David Cutler, Director of the Baring Foundation, said the partnership with Arts Council England and NCCH represents a significant step forward for the sector. ‘We are delighted to be partnering with Arts Council England and NCCH on this programme to integrate creative health better into healthcare systems in England. It is a major achievement by NCCH which has led the development of this work. We hope that this leads to a step change in the way that creative health is viewed, valued, supported and delivered within both the NHS and social care.’ Creative health approaches – which include arts-based interventions, music-making, visual arts and cultural participation – are increasingly recognised as supporting wellbeing, reducing health inequalities and helping to deliver more person-centred care. The new programme seeks to scale these approaches nationally by embedding leadership roles that connect health services with artists, cultural organisations and community initiatives.