Charlene Edwards, a Mental Health Therapist in North London, shares a first-hand account of her journey as a Clinical Innovation Fellow focused on using innovation to improve children’s mental health.
After spending years in frontline NHS roles — from primary care to the sharp end of acute mental health — I thought moving into a Clinical Innovation Fellow role at Imperial College Health Partners would be a refreshing change of pace. Spoiler: it was refreshing, but not exactly straightforward.
I’ve spent over 15 years responding to crisis calls, managing complex caseloads, and working under pressure — so stepping back to think about innovation and system-wide change felt like it should be simple. But it wasn’t. It turns out, switching from reacting to problems to reimagining how to prevent them requires a whole new mindset.
The pace is different, the goals are less immediate, and thinking “outside the box” means first having to figure out where the box even is, who designed it, and why the system is stuck.
A Mission close to the heart
North West London’s Mission to support the mental health of children and young people instantly resonated with me. Having worked with adults experiencing severe and enduring mental health conditions, I know how crucial it is to act early. If we can prevent distress from escalating, we give young people a chance to recover faster and build resilience. So being part of a Mission focused on prevention rather than crisis response felt both important and deeply aligned with my values.
Finding My Place in a Moving Mission
I joined this Mission mid-flow, which meant diving into work that had already begun. The Mission was focused on reducing A&E presentations among children and young people by 25%. Getting up to speed took some effort — there was a lot of backstory, data, and strategy to absorb. But once I found my footing, the work became incredibly engaging.
There were two key areas of focus: crisis and neurodiversity. Naturally, with my background in acute and crisis mental health, I gravitated toward the crisis stream. But even with my clinical knowledge, working with ICHP and understanding how they engage with systems and stakeholders was a learning curve of its own.
Aligning what service users need, what the system can realistically deliver, and what stakeholders view as feasible is a complex task. It requires careful coordination, thoughtful negotiation, and a willingness to adapt as new challenges and perspectives emerge.
Child Health Hubs: The heart of the Mission
A big focus of our work became the Child Health Hubs (CHH) — mutli-disciplinary team (MDT)-style forums within GP surgeries where clinicians can bring cases for discussion and shared decision-making. They also offer face-to-face appointments with paediatricians, helping ensure early and collaborative intervention.
As a Clinical Innovation Fellow, we worked closely with a site to understand its pain points and co-design solutions. The CHH had great intentions and strong commitment from clinicians (many of whom were doing the work on top of full-time jobs — true NHS spirit), but there were valid concerns about how these hubs would link to the broader goal of crisis prevention.
We listened, we brainstormed, and we explored potential answers — including tech innovations. I particularly enjoyed the conversations with digital innovators about how their tools could support clinicians and lighten their load. There’s something exciting about watching a brilliant idea evolve into a tool that could actually solve a real problem.
The case for innovation in mental health
Mental health is full of complexity, nuance, and unpredictability — which makes scalable innovation a tough nut to crack. But it also means we need it more than ever.
Despite my passion for improvement, I’d never been given the space in my clinical roles to think innovatively. When you’re rushing from one urgent situation to the next, there’s little time to stop and ask, “Could we do this differently?”. That’s why this Fellowship has been so valuable — it gives clinicians breathing room to reflect, create, and challenge the status quo.
The NHS is packed with incredible, compassionate people doing their absolute best in a stretched system. Sometimes, adding a bit of innovation — a new approach, a tech solution, or just a fresh perspective — can ease the burden and help those efforts go further.
Reflections and realisations
Being part of this Mission has been a genuine privilege, offering the opportunity to help prevent distress in children and young people—an effort that is not only deeply meaningful but also has a lasting impact on their recovery and long-term development. One key insight has been that mental health doesn’t lend itself to one-size-fits-all solutions; innovation in this space must be flexible, responsive, and centred around individual needs. Clinicians also need dedicated space and time to think innovatively—without it, promising ideas often fail to get off the ground. Additionally, working across different parts of the system has highlighted how varied priorities can create disconnects, often leaving service users feeling unheard. Addressing these gaps is essential if we want to see real, lasting improvement.
The world of innovation: A space full of possibility
One of the highlights of this journey has been seeing the potential in the innovation and technology space. There are solutions out there — smart, creative, and user-focused ideas — that can help address the same pain points we’ve been circling for years.
Being able to bridge the gap between clinical insight and innovation has felt incredibly empowering. It’s shown me that the future of healthcare doesn’t just lie in new tech — it lies in clinicians and innovators working together to design smarter, better systems.
My personal journey
This experience has brought a number of benefits. I gained a deeper understanding of system-level change and was able to translate my clinical experience into meaningful, practical innovation. I built strong relationships with passionate clinicians across different sites and explored exciting tech solutions designed to address real frontline challenges. Professionally, I developed as a leader, collaborator, and creative thinker, stepping into new ways of working and problem-solving. However, the journey wasn’t without its limitations. Joining the Mission midway made it difficult to grasp the full context at the outset, and navigating the varying priorities of different stakeholders proved complex at times. The gap between innovation and implementation became increasingly clear, and the inherent variability of mental health needs made it challenging to develop solutions that were universally applicable.
This role has challenged me in ways I didn’t expect — and helped me grow in ways I didn’t know I needed. I’ve learned that stepping outside your comfort zone can be uncomfortable, but it’s where the magic happens. I’ve learned that even seasoned clinicians benefit from fresh thinking, and that innovation isn’t about gadgets — it’s about people.
Work with us
Find out more about the NWL Mission to support children and young people’s mental health.
Want to work with us to support children and young people’s mental health in our region? Get in touch.
Interested in learning more about our Clinical Innovation Fellows programme? Drop us a line.
