The theme for Children’s Mental Health Week 2026 (February 9-15), “This is My Place”, is at heart of the ethos around the design of the Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People which will open its doors this year!

Based in South London at the heart of the world leading Maudsley Hospital site, it will be home to the King’s Maudsley Partnership, as well as many South London and Maudsley NHS Trust‘s child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) services, the Maudsley and Bethlem Hospital School and state of the art clinical research facilities. 

The pioneering new Centre will care for some of the UK’s most vulnerable young people experiencing anxiety, depression, OCD, self-harm, eating disorders, trauma and autism – work that will benefit the local community and be shared nationally and internationally. 

A place designed for and by young people

From its very inception, this building has been a ground-breaking project, not just in its architectural ambition but in its fundamental approach to design. We believe that for young people to feel truly supported and safe, their environment must reflect their needs and perspectives. That’s why the Pears Maudsley Centre has been co-designed with children, young people, and their families every step of the way.

The Centre’s layout and interior design has been informed by the needs and views of young service users. Throughout the design process we held workshops, consultations, and feedback sessions, listening to what young people wanted and needed from a mental health facility. Their insights have been invaluable, shaping: 

• Welcoming and accessible spaces: The Centre has been designed to be bright, open, and easy to navigate, reducing feelings of anxiety often associated with clinical environments. Natural light, green spaces, and a sense of calm have been prioritised. 

• Young People’s Art Group: young service users aged between 16 and 21 helped guide our arts strategy at the Centre. With the support of local artist, Daniel Regan, the Young People’s Art Group created the brief for each of the three commissions, which invited artists to develop exciting, site-specific artworks for the Centre, based on the theme of ‘nature’. This work was led by the Bethlem Gallery, supported by the Maudsley Charity. 

• Therapeutic environments: From quiet contemplation zones to active social areas, every space has been carefully considered to support different therapeutic needs and personal preferences. The design encourages engagement, creativity, and connection. 

• Reduced stigma: A key aim of the co-design process was to challenge traditional perceptions of mental health services. The Pears Maudsley Centre feels less like a hospital and more like a community hub, a safe haven where young people can feel comfortable and understood. 

“It’s going to change things literally from the ground up. It’s so rare within mental health services to have facilities that have been designed from the very start with young people, for young people.” 

 

Dr Bruce Clark, Clinical Director King’s Maudsley Partnership 

A Testament to Collaboration and Hope  

The opening of the Pears Maudsley Centre is a testament to the power of collaboration. It will act as a collaboration hub for academics and clinicians to work alongside children, young people and families to transform our understanding, and treatment of children’s mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions. It’s a place where they will find world-class care in an environment that truly understands and respects them. 

Brain imaging has revolutionised how we understand mental health in children and young people. It reveals that these conditions have real biological foundations and that every child’s brain is unique. Brain scans also allow us to explore how children and young people develop, and what happens in the brain when development takes an unexpected turn for example, when a child or a young person experiences a mental health condition like anxiety or depression or has a developmental condition like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). 

Can we really study the brain using light?   

One particularly exciting way to study the brain is by using light. While it may sound like something from a science-fiction film, the way it works is probably more familiar to you than it might at first seem. In the same way that a fitness watch uses light to measure heart rate, scientists can use light to measure brain activity. This method is called functional near-infrared spectroscopy, or fNIRS. It allows us to observe how the brain functions while children take part in everyday activities, rather than only when they are lying still in a scanner. 

How does this light-based brain imaging actually work?  

Children simply wear a soft, comfortable hat (a bit like a swimming cap) with small sensors that shine harmless near-infrared light onto the head.  

Our brains need oxygen to do its work. Whenever we do something, like listening to music or solving a puzzle, certain brain regions work harder than others and then and use more oxygen than others. The body responds by increasing blood flow to those areas of the brain. Blood that carries a lot of oxygen absorbs light differently from blood with less oxygen and the fNIRS hat picks up on these subtle changes to map brain activity. By measuring how much of the light travels through the head and is absorbed at any given time, scientists can see which areas of the brain are active and how that activity shifts over time. 

Why can fNIRS be such a game-changer for studying the brain during development? 

fNIRS is one of the newest, most flexible brain-imaging tools available. Unlike many traditional brain-imaging methods, fNIRS is quiet, non-invasive and highly flexible. MRI scanners, for example, have greatly advanced our understanding of the (developing) brain, but they require people to lie still inside a noisy, enclosed space. This can be challenging or overwhelming for many children and young people, especially very young children, children with different sensory needs or those with neurodevelopmental conditions like ADHD. fNIRS lets children move more freely and behave more naturally. This opens the door to research that is more inclusive, allowing more children to participate in science studies.  This movement-friendly design also makes fNIRS very valuable for understanding behaviour in real-world situations. Researchers can observe children while they chat with their parents, explore toys, solve age-appropriate tasks or even play together. Or we can study two young people wearing fNIRS hats at the same time, allowing us to understand how the developing brain works in real-life communication. This kind of natural, real-time data is extremely difficult to gather using traditional brain imaging method.

How will fNIRS help us improve mental health care for young people?  

We are already using fNIRS in our research within the King’s Maudsley Partnership and will continue to grow its use when the Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People opens next year. Enabling children who would have otherwise been excluded from participating in research to take part is central to ensuring our work will be more likely to benefit all children, not just the easiest to study. fNIRS is an example of how we are centering inclusion and equity in our research. 

Once our understanding of the developing brain in the real-world has improved we can then work as the King’s Maudsley Partnership, on bringing it into therapeutic settings / the clinic.  

We hope that fNIRS will become a key tool for advancing our mission to improve mental health care. For example, by helping us design interventions that are tailored to an individual child or young person’s specific strengths and challenges. Or by helping clinicians with choosing the most effective treatment plan, so that we can get care and support to families faster and more efficiently. 

We also hope that brain imaging studies can then not only take place in the dedicated clinical research facilities but also in school or community settings, and even in the comfort of your homes. Our goal is to make science work for and with every child and young person, so that they can thrive to the best of their ability.  

If you want to learn more about fNIRs and our work in this area please contact us on KMPCYP@slam.nhs.uk. Learn more about the Pears Maudsley Centre.

Learn more about Dr Louisa Gosse and her work.

Our Reaction

“Waiting lists for the assessment of both mental health conditions, ADHD, and autism have all risen exceptionally sharply in the last decade. Many people are seeking help from services that are stretched too thin, and people in need are falling through the cracks. 

“In order to confront this situation, we need to have a clear grasp as to why so many people are seeking help. The King’s Maudsley Partnership is home to the world’s largest group of researchers and clinicians dedicated to understanding and improving outcomes for children with a range of conditions, and we’re working hard to understand the underlying causes in an effort to provide the knowledge needed for more effective interventions. 

“The announcement of this review is a welcome one, and we hope our work will contribute meaningfully to it.” 

Leading experts explored what Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is, how it affects children and young people and what research questions are currently under investigation.

The “ADHD: New Discoveries, Better Support” webinar, held on Tuesday 4 November, brought together clinicians, researchers and experts by lived experience to reflect on the clinical academic research taking place on ADHD. The King’s Maudsley Partnership is home to the world’s largest group of researchers and clinicians dedicated to understanding and improving outcomes for children with ADHD.

Professor Philip Shaw, Director of the King’s Maudsley Partnership for Children and Young People, who’s academic work is focused on ADHD, chaired the webinar.

Increasing choice and quality of treatments 

In recent years awareness and understanding of ADHD have increased, however the treatment and support options available to support children and young people with ADHD have not kept pace. Most treatments are medication-based, and while these can be effective, many families and young people want more choices — especially non-drug alternatives.

These thoughts were echoed by Tiegan Boyens a neurodivergent lived experience consultant who joined the panel. She reflected that it took her a long time to get an ADHD diagnosis due to misconceptions around ADHD such as that it manifests primarily in physical activity and in boys. She called on researchers to do more to investigate supporting children who have ADHD alongside other comorbidities. She also said she wants to see more non-drug based treatment options to be available.

Novel brain therapies 

Professor Katya Rubia is focused on pioneering non-drug treatments for children and adults with ADHD. She spoke about some of the recent discoveries in this area. She has been investigating non-invasive brain stimulation to see if these can mimic the effects of ADHD medication by targeting the same brain regions, but without the side effects of drugs. She shared promising findings using transcranial direct current stimulation in children and adults with ADHD and new findings around Trigeminal nerve stimulation (TNS) which are due for publication in Nature Medicine in the coming weeks. She also reflected on the challenges of the placebo effect in studies involving cutting edge technology.

More information on the ATTENS (ADHD trial of external trigeminal nerve stimulation) project can be found here: ATTENS 

Tools to support children’s sleep 

Almost 75% of children with ADHD have sleep problems. Parents and carers report that poor sleep makes their children’s daytime behaviour and schoolwork worse and affects the quality of life of the whole family. However there are limited options for support and medication is the most common intervention. Professor Samuele Cortese provided insight into the DISCA (Digital Sleep Support for Children with ADHD) study. This research project aims to help parents, carers, and health professionals to manage sleep problems in children with ADHD.

More information about DISCA including information on how families can sign up to get involved in the study can be found at Home | Disca Study 

How data is guiding our work 

Professor Johnny Downs who leads the CAMHS Digital Lab shared data around children with ADHD living in south London. The data tells us that early childhood factors and demographics including ethnicity and gender make an ADHD diagnosis more likely even though this doesn’t represent true prevalence. He found that children from non-white ethnic groups are almost 50% less likely to get a diagnosis. He reflected that services need to ensure they are engaging effectively with all local communities to ensure all children who need it can access support services for ADHD.  

Professor Downs also reflected the ambitions of the CAMHS Digital Lab to continue to build digital tools to support parents and carers whose child is on the waiting list, or who has received a diagnosis, for ADHD. This follows successful outcomes from providing digital support to parents and carers on the waiting list for services via the My Health-E app. There is a virtuous circle that parents and carers receive more support and guidance whilst on the waiting list and their participation helps build a richer bank of data to underpin research into ADHD.

More information on the CAMHS Digital Lab can be found on its website Home | CAMHS Digital Lab 

The webinar came just after ADHD Awareness Month, throughout which the King’s Maudsley Partnership has been highlighting it’s work on ADHD. The King’s Maudsley Partnership’s home will be in the Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People, due to open in 2026. The Centre will have a one of it’s kind research facility enabling us to revolutionise our understanding ADHD and other neurodevelopmental conditions, and mental health conditions that affect children and young people.

For more information, please contact Helen Honstvet on helen.honstvet@slam.nhs.uk or sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with the work happening across the Partnership. You can also watch the recording of the webinar on our YouTube channel.

Over the past 25 years, I’ve been lucky enough to meet thousands of children and young people with ADHD who have taken part in research. In that time, public awareness of ADHD has grown enormously. It’s now part of everyday conversations.  There have been great strides forwards in our understanding of the subtle brain and thinking differences that contribute to some of the experiences of living with ADHD – such as having problems staying focused.

But while awareness and understanding of ADHD have increased, the options available to support children and young people with ADHD have not kept pace. Most current treatments are medication-based, and while these can be effective, many families and young people tell us they want more choices — especially non-drug alternatives that are tailored to their child’s needs.

That’s where the King’s Maudsley Partnership comes in.

We are the world’s largest collaborative group of researchers and clinicians dedicated to improving outcomes for children and young people with ADHD. What makes us different is how we work: we don’t just study ADHD — we work with children and young people to ask the questions that matter most to them, and to find answers that can truly make a difference in their lives.

Our Approach

Our research spans three interconnected areas, each designed to drive innovation and real-world impact:

1. Discovery Science

We explore the societal and biological factors that influence ADHD – from cells to society, from neurons to neighbourhoods. Much of our current work focuses on how subtle differences in genes, the brain and thinking are tied to ADHD. We use cutting edge approaches particularly AI.

One exciting breakthrough we have already had involves using AI to predict how ADHD might develop over time. In a recent project, we combined genetic and brain imaging data to train a machine learning model that can predict — with over 80% accuracy — whether a child diagnosed with ADHD will continue to meet diagnostic criteria in adolescence. This kind of insight could be transformative for families and clinicians as they plan for the future and make decisions about care and support.

2. Collaborative Science

We’re redefining how ADHD is understood by working directly with young people. Together, we’re co-creating new ways to measure how ADHD affects daily life — especially in school. We also explore how ADHD overlaps with other neurodevelopmental conditions like autism, helping to build a more inclusive and accurate understanding of these experiences.

An example of this is our involvement within the Regulating Emotions – Strengthening Adolescent Resilience or RE-STAR Study. Many neurodivergent young people such as those with ADHD or autism traits develop depression during adolescence – but we currently don’t know which individuals are at risk, what underlying processes increase that risk or, perhaps most importantly, the best way to intervene to increase resilience to reduce that risk. RE-STAR will address these gaps by exploring the interplay between autism and/or ADHD traits, exposure to environmental stressors, and emotional responding in neurodivergent young people, in driving developmental pathways to depression.

3. Treatment Innovation

We’re developing and testing new interventions that go beyond medication. One area we’re exploring is brain therapies — treatments that aim to change brain activity in a safe, non-invasive way. Over decades of research we have identified the brain networks that function differently in some people with ADHD. Brain therapies targets these networks directly, rather than just managing behaviour.

We’re currently focusing on brain stimulation.  Here, a gentle, painless, tiny electrical or magnetic field is applied to specific brain regions to improve attention and self-control. We are still testing these treatments.  So far, we find they have minimal side effects and now we are looking to see if they offer longer-lasting benefits.

Other researchers are looking at how digital technologies, such as smart watches and mobile phone, can help youth with ADHD monitor how treatments impact on their attention and mood.  Another focus is using on-line resources to help improve the sleep of those with ADHD, again asking if this will improve quality of life.   

Pears Maudsley Centre 

The Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People, will enable us to transform our understanding of ADHD. The new Centre will bring cutting-edge research, clinical care, and community engagement under one roof. Though our commitment to inclusion, and access to move inclusive technology we will be able to rebalance the inequalities that have existed in research until now.  

Want to learn more or get involved?

Join our free webinar ADHD: New Discoveries, Better Support on 4th November to hear more about the work happening on ADHD within the Partnership.

Stay connected with the King’s Maudsley Partnership as we continue to push boundaries, ask bold questions, and work alongside families and young people to shape the future of ADHD care. Email us at PMCYP@slam.nhs.uk to connect or follow us on our social media accounts.

It was a great opportunity to meet with clinical and academic colleagues at the Neurodevelopmental Conditions Community of Practice meeting. We had some thoughtful and engaging conversations about how we can work together to develop research that reflects clinical priorities and can be translated into practice to make a real difference for children, young people, and their families accessing CAMHS. 

This meeting built on the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s work to develop a translational research strategy, initiated in 2023. We started by looking back on the plans so far, setting out the strategy’s long-term ambitions and its focus on improving mental health outcomes for children and young people.  

Four areas for strategic priority were agreed: Prevention, Therapeutics, Personalisation, and Barriers to Care – selected for their strong potential to drive meaningful change.  

Each strategic area is structured around three translational research stages: 

• Discovery – Understanding the causes, progression, and outcomes of neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions. 
• Development – Designing and testing discovery-based interventions to prevent and treat child and adolescent mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions. 
• Implementation – Developing partnerships with schools, charities, community organisations, and national and international governmental bodies to support the effective implementation of interventions.  

Collaboration with other academic and clinical groups, along with sufficient resources, is essential to optimise research across each of these stages. 

Providing the glue linking these stages was the concept of the translational incubator

Multidisciplinary teams of researchers, clinicians and patients working on a particular problem at a particular stage of the translational cycle. For example, the first incubator will turn real-world clinical problems into clear research questions, then design studies to explore them. Another one will use the research findings to develop new or adapt existing interventions.   

Emotional dysregulation as a case study 

One of the most pressing challenges in child and adolescent mental health is emotional dysregulation (EDR)—a difficulty in managing emotional responses that often underpins a wide range of neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions. It’s also one of the most common reasons young people seek support from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. 

As part of our strategic discussions within the King’s Maudsley Partnership, emotional dysregulation emerged as a key area of focus—cutting across diagnostic boundaries and offering a promising opportunity for innovation in both research and clinical practice. A key part of this process will be the Neurodevelopmental Conditions Community of Practice, which will help bring the strategy to life. 

This led to a central question posed to the Community of Practice: 

How can precision science methods be used to better understand emotion dysregulation in neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions, and this understanding be applied to better target existing and new interventions? 

Initial ideas include: 

• Understanding the diversity of emotional dysregulation profiles within clinical populations. 
• Identifying sub-groups with distinct emotional regulation patterns and explore how these vary across different diagnostic groups. 
• Understanding the genetic, environmental, and neurocognitive factors that shape these profiles. 
• Using these insights to refine existing interventions or develop new, transdiagnostic approaches that are more targeted and effective. 

We had strong engagement from the Community of Practice about the idea of establishing an incubator working group to support the development of the proposed research in emotional dysregulation, with Dr Asilay Seker (Clinical Research Fellow in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) chairing. It would be great to keep the momentum going, so if you’re interested in getting involved, whether you’re a clinician, researcher, young person or parent/carer with lived experience, or from a partner organisation, please do get in touch at KMPCYP@slam.nhs.uk. 

Credit: Dr Amanda Bye, Dr Asilay Seker & Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke