West Yorkshire announces plan to boost health with creativity

A new approach to improving health through creativity has been announced as part of a collaboration between Mayor Tracy Brabin and the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership Board (WY HCP).

The region will become a ‘Creative Health System’, which will drive forward a new focus on improving people’s lives through creative initiatives designed to make people feel happier and become healthier.

In response to the recently released national Creative Health Review, where the Mayor, Tracy Brabin and Rob Webster, CEO Lead for WY HCP were included as commissioners, West Yorkshire plans to build on the achievements of the Creative New Deal. Additionally, it will hold the regional arm of the National Centre of Creative Health.

This will mean tailored creative courses to enhance wellbeing are part of the offer, with people of all ages benefiting – from improving the experience for young people staying in hospitals, to using dance as a way of combating isolation felt by older people.

Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, said:

“We’re working together to help people in West Yorkshire live happier and healthier lives."

"And we’re harnessing the success of our thriving creative industries to make it happen."

"Putting creative talent at the heart of healthcare will help us to build a stronger, brighter West Yorkshire”.

Since her election as Mayor – in which Ms Brabin pledged to deliver a “Creative New Deal” – the number of creative jobs in the region has risen by 17%, with almost 50,000 advertised in West Yorkshire last year.

Rob Webster CBE, CEO for NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and CEO Lead for WY HCP, said:  

“West Yorkshire is a leader in creative health, with years of culture that boosts people’s physical recovery, tackles loneliness and supports those who may be struggling with their mental health. It is also a crucible of creativity as seen in Leeds 2023 and the Kirklees 2023 Year of Music, all the way through to Bradford as City of Culture in 2025. Bringing these worlds together we can do much more to keep people healthy and well for longer more fulfilling lives."

Creative health is an element of joined up care and is part of the strategy of the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership. The term “creative health” describes the use of non-medical activities, from painting and playing music to cooking and gardening, which can be prescribed by health and care services to support people’s physical and mental health conditions.

Other initiatives include musicians writing lullabies with new families to reduce postnatal depression, a new “creative couch to 5k” app to help people practice new hobbies such as drawing, and community allotment gardening to support people with long term health conditions.

Notes to editors:

For more information about creative health in West Yorkshire, read West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership’s Integrated Care Strategy and the NHS West Yorkshire Joint Forward Plan.

Creative Minds, South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

For more information about the National Creative Health Review, visit: https://ncch.org.uk/creative-health-review

Some examples of creative health approaches are:

1. Supporting new families (Lullaby project) who may be struggling by engaging musicians to create personalised lullabies, reducing symptoms of postnatal depression, enhancing parent-child bonding, and minimising the need for perinatal secondary mental health services.
2. Establishing a creative care workforce to further improve the environment in residential homes and acute psychiatric inpatient wards - ultimately leading to shorter inpatient stays and reduced readmissions.
3. Early years development (First Songs): Partnering with early years settings in poorer areas, libraries, and communities to develop targeted music programs for 0–5-year-olds.
4. Creative Wellness App: Launching a creative version of "couch to 5k" through offering tailored creative courses to enhance wellbeing. The app, featuring 30 days of content on drawing, creative writing, dance, and movement commissioned from West Yorkshire arts organizations, provides opportunities for people referred by areas such as mental health services.
5. Working with young people on children's wards in hospitals (Heartbeats) to design a music-making infrastructure that transforms their experience during long or frequent stays.
6. Showcasing the success of Yorkshire Dance's Dance On programme, using dance to reduce frailty, combat isolation, and improve the overall quality of life for older people.
7. Creative Wellness App: Launching a creative version of "couch to 5k" through offering tailored creative courses to enhance wellbeing. The app, featuring 30 days of content on drawing, creative writing, dance, and movement commissioned from West Yorkshire arts organizations, provides opportunities for people referred by areas such as mental health services.