Project Director: Professor Chris Dayson
Project Duration: 2024-2027

We have received £2.1m over three years (2024-27) via UKRI (AHRC) Collaborative Community Research to Tackle Health Inequalities programme as one of 12 projects selected to address the UKRI programme objectives.

Our project is a collaboration between Sheffield’s two Universities and Doncaster’s vibrant creative health ecosystem led by darts, Cast, Heritage Doncaster and Doncaster’s Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC).

Taking Doncaster’s innovative Arts and Health Board as our start point, our project aims create a replicable Creative Health Board (CHB) model that will support the embedding of art, culture and other creative activities within the health and care system. It is our intention that CHBs will be led by community assets – local charities, community groups, museums and theatres – and involve the NHS, councils and the private sector working collaboratively to accelerate the development of creative health and embed it into health and social care. CHBs will work with system partners to develop plans to ensure that all residents can access sustainably funded programmes of art, culture and creativity in their communities.

We’ve set the ambitious goal that, by the end of our project, we will have established six new CHBs across the UK whilst our long-term vision is to have a CHB embedded in every health and care system in the UK so that community assets are sustainable, and creative health can be accessed by people wherever they live and whatever their circumstances.

Visit our dedicated project website to find out more: https://creativehealthboards.org.uk/

The project team also includes Ellie Lockley, Jenni Brooks, Cath Homer, Joe Langley, Sara Trentham Black (Sheffield Hallam University), Annette Haywood, Ellie Holding (University of Sheffield), Lucy Robertshaw (darts), Sarah Clough (Cast), Meg Barclay (Heritage Doncaster), Susan Hampshaw (Doncaster HDRC).