David Clayton-Smith, Chair of KSS AHSN, has been appointed as a Trustee for the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH)

The charity, which was established in March, aims to make creativity integral to health and social care systems. It was formed in response to the Creative Health report, the result of a two-year inquiry led by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing.

Commenting on his appointment David Clayton-Smith said:

“I believe that creative arts have a key role to play in supporting the health and wellbeing of communities and individuals, specifically around addressing inequalities, and so I am delighted to be joining NCCH.

“The charity’s aims and priorities tie in with both my role as chair of the Integrated Care System for Buckingham, Oxford and Berkshire West, and at KSS AHSN, where we focus on the spread and adoption of Innovation and innovative approaches to addressing healthcare inequalities.”

NCCH will play a pivotal role in enabling creative health approaches to become integral to health and social care and wider systems. Its priorities are health inequalities; advancing good practice and research; informing policy; and promoting collaboration.

It is working with Integrated Care Systems in Gloucestershire; West Yorkshire & Harrogate; Shropshire, Wrekin and Telford; and Suffolk and North East Essex, to explore models for integrating creative health at a systems level. Across the UK it is developing partnership ‘Hives’, to explore new ways of working in collaboration.