Creative Health Learning Pathway

The project aims to support the development of a Creative Health Learning Pathway that will equip participants with the skills, confidence and qualifications to design and deliver impactful wellbeing activities through arts, sport, and cultural engagement. The pathway will be targeted at young people and individuals under-represented in in traditional heath and care careers. The curriculum will cover key areas such as mental health awareness, creative facilitation, safeguarding and community engagement, ensuring participants are work-ready and capable of delivering measurable wellbeing outcomes.

Spectrum People and the Featherstone Rovers Foundation have secured £20,000 as semi-finalists in the West Yorkshire Mayor’s Big Ideas Challenge to design and pilot this pathway and identify accreditation options by January 2026. The University of Huddersfield has been invited to act as an academic partner, providing expertise in curriculum design, evaluation and accreditation. The IAA Impact Fund will resource staff time so that the University can contribute in two key ways:

Action enquiry – following the journey of the pilot training programme, capturing enablers, challenges, and early impacts. This process will be led by Dr Emily Heavey, who will facilitate five face to face focus group conversations with the project partners and trainees at regular intervals throughout the life of the project.

Exploring accreditation routes – investigating options for professional recognition, including a potential partnership with the University for future delivery. This will be led by Dr Nic Stenberg.

Spectrum People and Featherstone Rovers Foundation bring extensive expertise in creative health, youth development and community engagement. They will draw on existing facilities such as Appletree Gardens (Spectrum People) and the Millennium Stadium, Featherstone (home of Featherstone Rovers RLFC), both established community hubs, to host the pilot learning activities.

Underpinning Research
This project builds directly on the AHRC-funded Creating Change project (2022–23, £199k), which demonstrated the preventive health and social value of creative health interventions. Creating Change also revealed a key gap: while creative health activities are effective, provision is fragmented, and there is an urgent need for systematic training and accreditation to achieve sustainable, large-scale impact.

The University’s role in this project is to apply an action enquiry approach to capture the impact of the pilot training programme and to identify the conditions that support effective delivery. By generating robust, practice-based evidence, the University will help shape the design of the Creative Health Learning Pathway and strengthen the case for future investment.

This evidence will directly support follow-on funding opportunities, including a potential IAA Co-Creation Fund application and a full submission to the Mayor’s Big Ideas Challenge, positioning the project for long-term regional impact.

The project also directly aligns with the aims of the University of Huddersfield’s Creative Health Hub, which is building sustainable innovation and training partnerships with NHS Trusts and third sector organisations to embed creative health provision across West Yorkshire. It is intended that this project will form part of an Impact Case Study focussed around the work of the Creative Health Hub.

The IAA funding will support the co-creation of a scalable learning pathway that can be adapted for different areas of the creative health workforce. Specifically, the University’s involvement will enable:

Engagement of key stakeholders (trainees and project partners) in the co-production of learning about pilot training programme. This will focus on the enablers, barriers and impact of the pilot.

Translation of this learning into an accessible format for a broad audience.

Recommendations for accreditation routes and partnership opportunities.

These activities will be carried out through a series of focus groups involving all the stakeholders at regular points during the implementation of the pilot. These focus groups will involve those directly involved in designing, delivering and participating in the pilot programme. This will ensure that the learning from the pilot is co-produced and reflective of practitioner and community perspectives and experiences.