P_ART_ICIPATE! - Mapping Pathways for Digital Creative Health: APPHG Report and Recommendations

Digital creative health refers to participatory arts, delivered through digital tools such as immersive
(virtual or augmented reality) experiences, sensor-based platforms, and AI-assisted apps. There is
growing evidence that arts-based activity supports mental and physical health, and digital delivery can
widen access for people held back by distance, mobility or isolation. The field sits at the intersection of
three live policy agendas. The NHS 10-Year Health Plan places digital transformation and the shifts from
hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention at its centre. The Data (Use and
Access) Act 2025 (DUAA 2025) introduces new data governance requirements but does not address
creative health data. Reform of the NHS workforce and the move towards neighbourhood health create
an opening to embed creative health in community provision. The sector is innovating rapidly, yet it has
no defined home in regulation, in NHS structures, or in any single government department, meaning
promising tools struggle to reach the patients and communities who could benefit.

This policy briefing was developed as part of a roundtable held by the p_ART_icipate! consortium in
collaboration with the All-Party Parliamentary Health Group (APHG). The session brought together
representatives from across research, the NHS, the arts, technology, and people with lived experience of
using these services, to map the barriers and identify practical actions. It built on an earlier roundtable
in November 2025 on standards, ethics and accessibility, and was structured around four themes:
regulation and data ethics; digital infrastructure, accessibility and co-design; adoption pathways for
communities, practitioners and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); and culture change, higher
education institutions and the skills gap. The recommendations below are grouped under these themes.