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Learn how NICE healthtech guidance helped East London NHS Foundation Trust tackle rising demand for children's mental health services.

In this guest blog, Dale Greenwood, mental health lead for East London NHS Foundation Trust, shares how his trust implemented a digital innovation to support children's mental health.

In recent years, we've faced a growing challenge in children's mental health services across our East London region. In England, approximately 20% of children aged 8 to 16 have a mental health difficulty, and the number of young people accessing mental health services has nearly doubled between 2019 and 2023. When reviewing our existing services, we identified a significant gap in support specifically aimed at primary school children. With services struggling to meet this increasing demand, we needed an innovative solution to complement our existing work and address this specific gap in provision.

NICE’s healthtech guidance programme

NICE developed its healthtech guidance programme to provide evidence-based recommendations for digital products, devices and diagnostics. The programme produces different types of guidance depending on where a technology is in its product life cycle.

NICE’s healthtech guidance for early use makes recommendations on promising technologies at an early stage of evidence generation, enabling faster adoption in the NHS. The guidance is conditional, with recommendations made while more evidence is gathered to address any uncertainties. At the end of the evidence generation period (usually around 3 years), NICE reviews the evidence and makes a final decision on routine adoption.

The programme also makes recommendations on technologies ready for widespread NHS adoption and established technologies already in use. This ensures appropriate evaluation at every stage.

From guidance to adoption

In February 2023, NICE published healthtech guidance for early use of digital cognitive behavioural therapy for children with mild to moderate anxiety or low mood. It recommends 4 digital technologies for use until February 2026, while further evidence is gathered on their effectiveness. Among these is Lumi Nova, a digital therapy app for children aged 7 to 12 with symptoms of anxiety. It combines therapeutic and psychoeducational content with an intergalactic role-playing game.

NICE's conditional recommendation, alongside Lumi Nova's CE mark certification from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, made it a compelling choice for our trust. This dual endorsement provided credibility that helped us secure stakeholder buy-in. GPs felt confident recommending it to families, while schools appreciated having evidence-based support for their pupils.

Dale Greenwood, mental health lead at East London NHS Foundation Trust, said:

“NICE is such a respected organisation. It was great having their healthtech guidance saying this is the right thing to do.”

Funding the technology

Unlike medicines approved under NICE’s technology appraisal programme, there is currently no central funding mandate for healthtech guidance. Securing investment for digital innovations like Lumi Nova is an on-going problem. This creates barriers to adoption, hindering the government’s vision to shift the NHS from analogue to digital and treatment to prevention.

At East London NHS Foundation Trust, we were able to overcome this challenge by purchasing Lumi Nova through our mental health support team service development budget for early interventions within schools. This enabled implementation without diverting resources from existing services targeted at early intervention.

Working in partnership

Lumi Nova’s developers have provided comprehensive implementation support. They’ve delivered staff and parent training sessions and helped with commissioning paperwork, such as digital technology assessment criteria approval and data protection impact assessments. They've also been responsive to our feedback – when we raised concerns about digital poverty, they adapted the app to run on older operating systems, widening access to more families.

One of the most exciting aspects of NICE's healthtech guidance for early use is the opportunity to contribute to pioneering research. The company is responsible for collecting and analysing all the data outlined in NICE’s evidence generation plan. This allows our staff to focus on supporting children while still contributing to the evidence base for digital mental health interventions.

Benefits to our community

The benefits to our local population and impact on clinical outcomes have been significant. Lumi Nova allows us to reach children who might otherwise have gone without support, with 86% of users showing reliable improvement or non-deterioration, measured through the child outcome rating scale. Parents have reported tangible changes, with feedback like ‘My son was calmer and able to deal with worries better’ and ‘He’s more willing to talk and show vulnerabilities.’

The tool has also enhanced equality, proving particularly beneficial for some neurodivergent children who may find face-to-face interactions challenging. Early digital intervention may also help prevent progression to more severe conditions requiring specialist intervention, potentially reducing pressure on more costly services.

Find out more

Our full case study provides valuable insights for NHS trusts and other organisations considering adoption of digital mental health interventions.

If you're a healthtech developer seeking to enter the NHS market, NICE's fee-based advisory service, NICE Advice, can help optimise your market access journey.