I am writing to draw your professional attention to Croydon’s Director of Public Health Annual Report 2024, updated on July 25, 2025. This critical document centers on creative health, exploring how arts, culture, nature-based activities and creative engagement can significantly impact residents’ wellbeing. It builds on Croydon’s 2023 London Borough of Culture experience and includes a robust Call to Action and tangible recommendations for system-wide investment and collaboration.

Why This Matters to Multi‑Agency Practitioners

1. Strengthens Preventative Impact

The report outlines how creative health initiatives - such as visual arts, gardening, music, literature and community-based projects, can deliver cost-effective, preventative interventions across mental health, loneliness, dementia prevention, and early years development. This aligns directly with wider prevention strategies across agencies engaged in meeting Croydon’s shared health agenda.

2. Elevates Partnership Working

A collective ecosystem is identified, requiring local authorities, NHS, social care partners, the VCFS sector, education bodies and private sector organisations to think, plan and deliver jointly. The creative health sector expresses desire for improved referral pathways, shared data, coordination and long‑term commitment to partnership models.

3. Offers Local Evidence & Case Studies

The report includes real-world case studies (for example, creative nature‑based micro‑adventures and collaborative arts with homeless service users) demonstrating measurable wellbeing outcomes and social cohesion. These examples provide practical learning for application in your own workstreams.

4. Supports Croydon Health and Wellbeing Strategy

The Annual Report provides an evidence base that underpins Croydon’s Joint Local Health & Wellbeing Strategy 2024–29 and its associated Health and Care Plan priorities—such as mental health, child and youth wellbeing, older people’s independence and neighbourhood connectivity.

Reflection Prompts for Your Practice

Please consider reflecting on the following questions within your agency or partnership team:

• In what ways could creative health principles enhance existing programmes you deliver (e.g. mental health, social prescribing, youth work, older people's services)?

• Are there current pathways for referrals to creative health providers, or scopes to implement stronger links?

• Could your team contribute to or participate in Croydon’s emerging Creative Health Network, or collaborate with the Creative Health team or VCFS partners?

• Does your service use appropriate impact measurement tools to capture outcomes that creative health programmes generate, and can you align with the standardised framework proposed in the report?

Strategic Opportunities

• Align commissioning and grant‑making priorities with creative health goals, explicitly funding prevention‑focused arts, community culture or nature‑based interventions targeted at priority populations.

• Embed creative health into broader service pathways—enabling clear referral routes and co‑commissioning opportunities across sectors.

• Share data and intelligence with creative health partners, to inform strategic planning, unlock economic case for interventions, and build sustainable delivery models.

Next Steps

1. Download and review the Public Health Annual Report 2024 (updated July 25, 2025).

   👉 final-public-health-report-2024-updated-july-25.pdf

2. Schedule a multi‑agency briefing or workshop to explore practical ways your service could harness creative health.

3. Identify local creative health providers and community organisations (including small CICs and freelancers) to explore partnerships or referral mechanisms.

4. Commit to impact measurement approaches that can evidence outcomes and support future funding and strategy decisions.

This report is more than an information document; it is a powerful invitation to re‑imagine prevention, improve collaboration and embed culture‑led innovation into our health and social care response. Your engagement will be pivotal in translating strategy into meaningful impact for Croydon’s residents.