Help us to explore the impact of creative activities in supporting people health and wellbeing

In south east London we are looking at the benefits that more personalised support including ‘creative health’ can have on improving people’s health and wellbeing.

Creative health offers a different approach to health and wellbeing - one that draws on community assets and mobilises creative, cultural to support people to live well. Creative Health might be taking part in a community gardening project, a singing for wellbeing group, a social arts and crafts session, a cookery class, or any other creative activity which you might be taking part in at home, in a community or health setting, or in a cultural or heritage space.

This work is a partnership between the local councils, the voluntary and creative sector, the Greater London Authority and NHS South East London. We are one of two areas in London testing out this approach, to see how we can use less traditional methods to support people to live well for longer and things that make sense in their lives.

The South East London Creative Health Programme aims to explore how and where creative programmes are supporting the reduction of health inequalities across our six boroughs.

In our work of testing this approach alongside an intensive work of developing new partnerships and mapping the great efforts that are already happening across south east London we aimed to listen to local people's stories, about their views and experiences on how creativity helps them to stay well, and what creative activities are they participating on and where.

Listening to local people

We invited people living in Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark to tell us about their experiences of how creativity supports their health and wellbeing.

We heard from over 300 residents through a survey, events, community outreach, online conversations and video stories, providing rich insight into people’s experiences and stories of the power of creativity for health and wellbeing.

Read a full report from our engagement approach.

In April 2025 we visited Raw Material Music and Media, a vibrant community music and creative arts centre based in Brixton in Lambeth dedicated to supporting creative and personal development within the south London community. The Raw Material team were hosting a community open day to showcase their newly renovated three storey accessible building housing recording studios, digital audio production suite and a live performance room. The event also highlighted the wide range of creative activities and resources that people of all ages can access.

We spoke with some of the amazing staff, volunteers and community members who are involved with Raw Material’s programmes. The participants shared how creativity helps them to stay well and feel connected, from poetry and music making to dancing and drumming! Check out these short videos on the right hand side with some of the participants explaining how creative activities are important to maintaining theirs and others health and wellbeing.

Over the summer in 2025 we attended events and festivals across south east London to talk to people about the ways in which creativity plays a role in their lives and the responses are inspiring:

‘Creativity is the intrigue that helps to bring peoples together and that togetherness then bonds people and creates relationships and creates wellbeing’

‘I recently had a stroke and am learning to crochet one handed. It is much more challenging than creative’

‘Not feeling isolated and a reason to get out and socialising has made the biggest difference.’

‘My way to be creative is by making creative learning resources and a beautiful learning environment for my students. This makes me feel good’

‘I love cooking for people because I love to see the smile on their faces. Cooking is a passion of mine. I feel that food brings people together from different walks of life. Good food is essential. Cooking helps me relive stress and makes the world go around.’

‘Being creative makes me happy’

‘I enjoy and feel good every time when I am drawing with henna’

We also listen to local people stories and views via an online survey which was open for 12 weeks. Over 200 people responded to our survey and told us how creative activities help them and supported to collect evidence which shows the power of creativity on people's health and wellbeing.

In our approach we set up a Creative Health Co-Production Working Group. The purpose of which is to:

• Assess the understanding and impact of Creative Health programmes in different communities across south east London and gain an understanding of the value of creative health and how easy people find it to take part in these activities and programmes
• Plan and deliver further work with local people and communities in the programme using a range of ways to find out views about what creative health means to people and communities and how it supports people to stay well including workshops and outreach.
• Share information about London’s Creative Health City in partnership with the Greater London Authority and explore what impact this could have on local people.
• Seek involvement from local people to share stories of the impact of Creative Health at the upcoming South East London Creative Health event in February 2025.
  

Thank you very much for everyone who have expressed their interest to be involved.

The Creative Health Co-Production group have met a few times, coming together to explore the impact of creativity on wellbeing and the importance of access to creative programmes which can support communities to stay healthy.

In February 2025 the group attended the Integrated Care Board & Greater London Authority’s event “How can we reduce health inequalities through creativity” to share their perspectives on how South East London Integrated Care Board can further facilitate access to creativity to support health of local communities and why this matters. The group is made up of community leaders from the voluntary sector, local people with experience supporting improvement of health services and those with lived experience of utilising creativity to support their own wellbeing.

Attendees saw first-hand the impact of creative health initiatives across south east London including: Breathe Arts Health Research, Thriving Stockwell , Everyone’s A Singer, Performing Medicine’s REACH programme, Questsoul Theatre CIC, Good Byes with TACO!, Theatre Peckham’s Unseen Unheard, The Bridge at Waterloo & Downham Men’s Group.

Discussions focused on the power of cross-sector collaboration and the need for long-term funding to tackle health inequalities. People with lived experience shared why creativity matters to them and how it supports their wellbeing. Attendees also explored how creativity can be embedded into the health system and how communities can use it to stay well.

According to a report from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, there is a growing body of evidence that illustrates the links between cultural and heritage engagement and health and wellbeing. Research by the World Health Organisation (WHO) from 2019 and University College London (UCL) has found that cultural engagement can help to prevent, treat and manage physical and mental health problems.

At the event, Heart n Soul ran a creative activity, while DJ Trancey Parker kept energy levels high with music throughout the morning.

The aim was to inspire future work, shaping NHS South East London’s Creative Health programme for 2025, ensuring it reflects what matters most to people working in health, arts, and community sectors.

With @StudioBeci support, the illustrator Beci Ward helped us to capture the event in graphic illustrations - you can see all images on their website.

How you get involved?

Join our conversations and tell us how creativity supports your health and wellbeing?