Children and Young People and Digital Mental Health Technologies
Background
The Children’s Commissioner for England’s latest report (2026) highlights that over one million children were referred to CYP mental health services in 2024-25. The number of mental health referrals has doubled since 2018/19 and increased by 9.5% in just the past year. Waits of over one year are now common with over 60,000 children waiting over two years for support. Traditional mental health services are struggling to meet this growing demand, highlighting the urgent need for innovative, scalable solutions, such as digital mental health technologies (DMHTs).
Since the beginning of the Health Innovation Network South London’s (HIN) mental health programme in 2018, south London mental health stakeholders have actively engaged in learning about, testing and implementing DMHTs. These technologies have the potential to improve access to support and complement existing services however, significant challenges remain to their widespread adoption and scale-up within CYP mental health services.
- Around 1 in 5 young people are estimated to have a probable mental health condition
- The impact of childhood mental health problems leads to £1 trillion in lost earnings across the generation
- Anxiety is the top reason children were referred to children’s mental health services in 2024/5 (16% of all referrals)
A blueprint for a digitally enabled pathway for children and young people referred to CAMHS for anxiety and/or depression
Following the discovery and co-design projects described below, we have published a blueprint and accompanying self-assessment tool. The documents aim to provide a pathway stage-appropriate blueprint for where and how digital tools may be used to complement and enhance the CAMHS pathway for young people referred with symptoms of anxiety and/or depression.
We now plan to move from blueprint to impact. To operationalise the blueprint, we are seeking funding to establish an implementation and evaluation fund which directly supports the implementation of DMHTs and generates evidence to support future commissioning decisions.
We welcome enquiries from organisations interested in supporting, implementing or evaluating this work.
2024/25: Discovery Project
In 2024–25, the HIN undertook a discovery project to explore the need for transformation, as well as the opportunities and challenges associated with implementing DMHTs for CYP at scale. The project was driven by unprecedented demand for services, the national and local prioritisation of CYP mental health, and a growing DMHT market.
The discovery project outputs, detailed below, highlighted struggles in meeting growing demands through traditional models, and the potential for digital technologies to be part of the solution.
2025/26: Design Project
Building on the findings from the 2024/25 Discovery Project, the HIN undertook a design project to explore in detail, how DMHTs could support CYP with anxiety and/or depression and help address the challenges of long CAMHS waiting lists.
To inform the design phase, the HIN convened a roundtable discussion chaired by Professor Andrew George and completed an Equality Analysis to embed equity considerations.
The roundtable highlighted:
- There is a need for innovation in mental health care for CYP
- Digital solutions have the potential to meet at least some of that need
- Technologies provide an opportunity to start the therapeutic journey while young people are waiting to be seen by a CAMHS clinician
These findings informed two key priorities for the project:
Co-design of a digitally enabled
CAMHS pathway for anxiety and depression
Working in partnership with Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust, this project co-designed a digitally enabled pathway for children and young people aged 11+ referred to NHS CAMHS for anxiety and/or depression.
The projects final output is the digitally enabled pathway blueprint for children and young people referred to NHS CAMHS for anxiety and/or depression.
The blueprint was developed through extensive co-design with children and young people, parents and carers with lived experience, CAMHS services and stakeholders from across the health, care and education system. Through stakeholder focus groups, a workshop and pathway-specific co-design groups, participants explored how digital mental health technologies could be implemented across the CAMHS pathway to improve experiences and outcomes for children and young people.
The blueprint includes:
- A stage-by-stage approach outlining where and how digital tools may be used to enhance care and support children and young people from referral through to discharge
- Practical recommendations to support implementation, ensure acceptability, and measure impact across the system
- A self-assessment tool to support services in reviewing current digital provision, identifying gaps and prioritising development needs to enable implementation of a co-designed, digitally enabled NHS CAMHS pathway.
Explore external
funding opportunities
The 2024/25 Discovery Project highlighted funding constraints and a lack of confidence in the evidence for DMHTs as some of the key barriers to their adoption.
The HIN is exploring external funding opportunities to operationalise the blueprint – to support the implementation, evaluation and wider adoption of the digitally enabled pathway blueprint across CAMHS.
Investment would support the HIN to address the urgent need for timely and scalable mental health support for CYP on NHS CAMHS waiting lists.
We welcome enquiries from organisations interested in supporting, implementing or evaluating this work.
Resources
A digitally enabled pathway blueprint for children and young people referred to NHS CAMHS for anxiety and/or depression