About the Digital Workstream
Connecting industry, researchers and people with lived experience to build fair, data‑driven partnerships for mental health research in the UK.
The Digital Workstream aims to make it easier to design, test, adopt, and scale digital tools and technologies across the UK.
We focus on building the infrastructure, partnerships, and practical pathways that help new ideas turn into real services that improve people’s lives.
Our work is technology-neutral and supports a wide range of digital mental health solutions.
Disconnected Design
Complex Systems
Barriers to Adoption
Scaling Gaps
Many digital tools are developed without enough input from people with lived experience, frontline clinicians, industry partners, or investors. This can lead to solutions that are difficult to use, poorly aligned with service needs, and hard to scale.
Innovators face slow and inconsistent procurement processes, unclear reimbursement routes, and regulatory requirements that often duplicate effort across organisations. Generating the right evidence for adoption is particularly difficult.
Even when technologies show promise, adoption across the NHS can be challenging. Services may lack digital capacity and practical implementation support. Multi-site adoption is difficult without a coordinated national pathway.
Scaling Gaps
Grant funding often ends before real-world rollout begins, private investment can be difficult to secure, and commercial pathways are unclear. Opportunities to build international partnerships are also underused.
Digital mental health innovations often struggle to move beyond pilots. Systems are complex, approval routes are unclear, and innovators lack practical support to work with the NHS.
We aim to:
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Ensure the UK remains a global leader in digital mental health
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Support sustainable investment and long-term growth
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Make digital innovation easier to develop and implement
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Align innovation with real needs of patients, carers, clinicians, and services
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Create clear national pathways for adoption, procurement, and reimbursement
Key Recommendations from our Digital Implementation Workshop
1. Establish a clear national digital mental health strategy
Define transparent routes from early evaluation to routine commissioning, with clear roles and responsibilities defined across national, regional and local bodies. Clarify which responsibilities lie at which level and reduce the redundancy of evaluations being repeated at multiple levels.
2. Embed lived experience at every stage of the innovation pathway
Develop digital mental health strategy and infrastructure in close partnership with people with lived experience of mental health problems.
3. Signal national priorities for uptake and scale
Move beyond neutrality by actively signalling which digital approaches are best placed to be adopted, supported, or discontinued.
4. Align reimbursement and procurement with clinical reality
Develop explicit funding and procurement models and budgets that recognise digital tools as part of care delivery, including the clinician time required to use them effectively.
5. Invest in interoperability and digital foundations
Treat connectivity, shared standards and digital identity as core infrastructure for the national digital mental health strategy.
6. Build workforce and ecosystem capability
Support clinicians, commissioners, and system leaders through training, education, and change-management resources, while providing clearer navigation support for innovators.
7. Modernise evaluation and assurance models
Support the generation of real-world evidence linked to patient-prioritised and societal outcomes, alongside the evaluation of clinical and service outcomes.
For Innovators
Our work aims to support the simplification of approval and procurement processes and provides clear guidance for entering the NHS. Innovators need better access to funding, stronger partnerships, and clearer routes to scale proven solutions.
Key Problems
Our Purpose
Our strategy
What this means in practice
For the NHS and Clinical Teams
Clinical teams receive practical, hands-on support to adopt and use new tools effectively. Services benefit from shared learning, reduced duplication, and coordinated national support for digital transformation.
For People and Communities
More high-quality digital tools reach the people who need them. Solutions are designed with users, easier to access, and better integrated into care.