In September 2026, Creative Communities Policy Lead Helen Apsey took part in the Mayoral Authorities Creative Health Network Co-Lab Policy Network event ‘Exploring Creative Health Ecosystems’, hosted by darts (Doncaster community arts) at their purpose-built arts centre, The Point in Doncaster, with creative facilitation from Make Work Play.
The Mayoral Authorities Creative Health Network Co-Lab Policy Network is one of the AHRC Creative Communities Co-Lab Policy Network Awards, new cross-sector cultural policy networks in devolved nations and regions of the UK, which create capacity for cross-sector collaborative exchange of policy ideas relating to culture and devolution.
The Co-Lab Policy Network Awards will grow the reach and impact of AHRC Creative Communities programme interventions through actioning learnings generated from this evidence base. They will generate new opportunities to connect cross-sector communities in devolved contexts and develop learning and relationships with policymakers in devolved nations and regions. The Mayoral Authorities Creative Health Network Co-Lab Policy Network will map policy alignment and challenges across mayoral areas and establish a first of its kind framework for embedding creative health for growth into devolved strategy.
The Co-Lab event focused on how creative health aligns to policy objectives within and across Mayoral Combined Authorities in England, and how to design a more sustainable investment and delivery model for creative health.
The day started with engaging talks on the South Yorkshire Creative Health system and its innovative ways to embed creative health – with presentations from Lucy Robertshaw from darts, Rachel Massey from the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance and Clare Henry from Doncaster Council.
Following this, participants worked in groups with creative facilitation to guide them through co-creation activities. These included ‘Picture Library’, where pictures represented what a creative health system could look like to each participant and group; ‘Machines’, where creative objects were used to make a machine that represented the ideal creative health system and mechanisms needed to get us there; and ‘Making the Case’, where each table pitched to a different decision maker within a Mayoral Authority, on why a thriving creative health ecosystem was essential to achieving their aims.
The Co-Lab Policy Network Award is a collaboration between The University of Manchester and the Mayoral Authorities Creative Health Network (MACHN), convened by Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Greater London Authority, and funded by the AHRC Creative Communities programme hosted at Northumbria University.
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