For our patients, education is provided from ages 4 to 19 at the Maudsley and Bethlem Hospital School focusing on maintaining continuity in education and supporting a return to learning beyond a period of illness.

Following the opening of the Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People, the school has now relocated into the new building, while provision at the Bethlem site continues.

Pupils are now attending lessons in the purpose‑designed environment, allowing education to take place alongside inpatient care in a dedicated learning space. 

How does the Centre create a learning environment that feels different from a ward?

In many hospital settings, education has traditionally taken place in spaces closely aligned with clinical environments, making it difficult to distinguish between treatment and learning.

At the Pears Maudsley Centre, learning spaces are separate from clinical areas and reflect familiar classroom environments. The design includes calm, non‑clinical interiors and personalised teaching areas that respond to pupils’ individual needs. The Maudsley and Bethlem Hospital School is an Ofsted-rated Outstanding  academy within The Goldfinch Trust which helps pupils engage in familiar education settings.  

How do children and young people stay connected to nature and activity during care? 

The Centre includes two dedicated outdoor learning spaces including the Education terrace and Rooftop terrace, providing over 600 square meters of outdoor space for learning, movement and relexation. 

In addition, the Centre includes a double height gym, allowing pupils to take part in structured physical education. Activities include team sports, dance, yoga and tennis sessions, supported in part through partnerships such as the Tim Henman Foundation. 

As Maarten Crommelin, Headteacher of Maudsley and Bethlem Hospital School and CEO of The Goldfinch Trust, explains:

The new school spaces within the Pears Maudsley Centre send a clear message to our young people that their education matters. From the science laboratory and teaching kitchen to the art studio, music room and rooftop terraces, each space has been designed to support learning, curiosity and recovery. The emphasis on natural light, outdoor space and views of nature helps create a calm setting that supports engagement with education and confidence in returning to learning.

How does the Centre support transitions and long-term outcomes?

For many young people, admission to inpatient care follows a period of disruption to their education. Some may have been out of school for extended periods due to the severity of their mental health needs.

Teaching at the Maudsley and Bethlem Hospital School is structured to support continuity in learning, with clear pathways towards returning to education, training or employment after discharge.

As Headteacher Maarten Crommelin explains:

The Pears Maudsley Centre enables us to maintain a strong focus on educational outcomes and future destinations. As a recognised examinations centre, we support students to continue working towards GCSEs and A Levels, often sitting examinations shortly after admission. At the same time, we work closely with mainstream schools and colleges to ensure continuity of learning and successful reintegration. The new facilities provide an environment where young people can continue to see themselves as students first and foremost.

This approach reflects a shared commitment across the King’s Maudsley Partnership and its partners to support children and young people to continue their education, maintain progress and plan for what comes next. 

On the evening of June 9th I had the privilege of standing with our partners in the King’s Maudsley Partnership for Children and Young People to officially open the doors of its flagship Pears Maudsley Centre. The opening represents the culmination of a dream shared across the partnership when then Maudsley Charity CEO Rebecca Gray stood shoulder to shoulder with our partners to break ground on this site five years ago this month.   

We made our largest ever single donation to date of £10m to the building of the Centre and have committed ourselves to ongoing support of the King’s Maudsley Partnership because we so strongly believe in its vision – bringing together some of the best clinical and research minds in the country to better understand and treat the mental health challenges being increasingly faced by our children and young people.  

It could not have come at a better time. One in five children and young people aged eight to 25 is dealing with a probable mental health condition.1  And as highlighted by the recent Milburn review, of the 957,000 16- to 24-year-olds classified by the government as NEET (not in education, employment or training), 76% say their mental wellbeing directly affects their ability to look for work.2 

A joined-up approach is the only way to address this growing demand. Along with our support for this unique collaboration, we are also funding partnerships between South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, researchers and trusted community organisations in South London through our Building Brighter Futures programme. They are delivering early, evidence-based interventions that keep children from becoming really unwell.  

And we will continually share evidence generated by all our work with children and young people to ensure that the most effective solutions are implemented, not just in South London, but across the country.   

These are reasons for genuine optimism.  

I’ve already seen hope etched on the faces of the first set of families visiting the Centre. A few weeks ago, I encountered a mother in our café at Ortus, the charity’s headquarters, fresh from her first appointment next door. After a lengthy spell on the NHS waiting list, she had nothing but praise for how she and her child were dealt with by the clinicians and researchers she saw there.  

She also remarked that she had never been in a setting like it on an NHS site and that the building itself made her feel cared for. This is a testament to the investment of time in consulting young people and families on both the design of the building and in the commissioning of the artwork still being installed into and around it.  

We want families like hers to feel reassured that with the work to come from the committed teams at the King’s Maudsley Partnership, a happy and healthy future for their children remains within reach.   

Learn more about the Pears Maudsley Centre.

Across South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, more than 80 Research Champions are playing a role in connecting clinical teams with research, acting as the first point of contact for research-related activities in their teams. 

As the Pears Maudsley Centre opens, with the aim of bringing together clinical services and research together under one roof, Research Champions will help make this a reality. They embed research into everyday practice by sharing opportunities for service users to take part in studies, supporting staff training and development, and passing on the latest evidence about clinical practice. 

In this blog, we speak to three Research Champions who will be moving into the Pears Maudsley Centre. They reflect on how they bring research into their clinical work, why integrating research with care is important, and what they are looking forward to about being part of this innovative partnership. 

• (Left) Caitlin Nichol, Assistant Psychologist, Lewisham CAMHS 

• (Middle) Simone Fox, Consultant Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, Multisystemic Therapy (MST) team 

• (Right) Jake Camp, Senior Clinical Psychologist, National & Specialist CAMHS, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) Service   

What does the Research Champion role involve for you?  

Jake: I carry out all the core Research Champion responsibilities: acting as a key contact for researchers recruiting to studies; answering research-related questions in our service, and disseminating available studies with our client group. 

Caitlin: As a Research Champion, I have been promoting many research projects recruiting across the service, through discussion, presentations, emails, and research posters in clinic areas. 

Simone: I have been taking the discussions and learning from the Research Champions’ meetings to my team within SLaM as well as our wider teams in the Multisystemic Therapy Network Partnership. I see my role as bridging the gap between research and clinical practice and ensuring what we are doing is embedded in the evidence base. We don’t work directly with patients in our service, so I’m not involved in study recruitment. 

Do you bring research into your work in other ways?  

Jake: I also have adjacent relevant roles that overlaps with the Research Champion role that are part of my role as research lead for my NHS service and my clinical academic fellow/senior lecturer role at King’s College London. This includes leading on research and service evaluation projects, applying for funding, consulting on projects, supervising clinicians and students to complete research projects, PPI, and dissemination work. 

Simone: I am the research lead for the Multisystemic Therapy (MST) Team. This involves overseeing the research that is being undertaken across the MST partnership nationally and in Ireland. I co-ordinate and supervise a number of doctoral theses together with Royal Holloway University of London. I also chair a European MST Research group and we organise an annual online conference. 

I also chair another research champions group, inspired by my role in the Trust, within the MST Network Partnership, bringing all the teams together with researchers. It was set up with representatives from each of the teams that we work with across England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

Why do you think it’s important or helpful for clinicians to be research aware and/or research active? Has being a Research Champion changed your own day to day work?  

Caitlin: I think it’s helpful for clinicians to be aware of current research studies ongoing across the partnership, to ensure local voices are heard in research. Clinicians being able to discuss ongoing research with young people and their families demystifies research and can support more inclusive research practices. The role has given me time to think about how we improve access to research and ensure it is at the centre of clinical discussions.  

Simone: It is vital that the work and interventions that are carried out by clinicians are guided by the evidence base – which is from the research. Research is important in improving practice and a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t. I am now more mindful of keeping research on the agenda with the team. 

Jake: It’s important because we know that healthcare organisations with a close relationship to research tend to be the organisations that perform better. We also know that it supports evidence-based practice and data-driven innovations in practice as the gold standard; and that it supports clinicians to understand and use research, as well as potentially contribute to clinically-relevant research. 

What are you looking forward to about moving into the Pears Maudsley Centre?  

Simone: I am looking forward to making more connections across teams and learning from others. 

Jake: I’m enthusiastic about the increased focus on clinical and academic partnership, and additional support structures of the King’s Maudsley Partnership. I have already built clinical academic links between South London and Maudsley and King’s College London, but expect it will be beneficial being under this umbrella in the longer-term. 

I think the partnership will have a broader impact on those who are situated in either clinical practice or academia, and hopefully bring those a little closer together. So much collaboration and learning happens in those corridor chats or when we intersect with people for other reasons, and so the Pears Maudsley Centre will hopefully increase the likelihood of this. 

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.”