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, that create new capacity for cross-sector collaborative exchange ideas about culture and devolution.
The Co-Lab Policy Network Awards 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 is mapping policy alignment and challenges across mayoral areas and establishing a first of its kind framework to embed creative health into devolved strategy.
Their September Co-Lab event focused on how creative health can align with devolved 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.
Participants then 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 is essential to achieving devolved local growth plans.
The Mayoral Authorities Creative Health Co-Lab Policy Networkis 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 by Northumbria University.
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