Moving into the Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People
The countdown has begun – next week the first teams move into the brand-new Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People.
We are pleased to finally be able to begin this new chapter. Throughout May, South London and Maudsley’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and The Maudsley and Bethlem Hospital School will take up residence in the brand-new Pears Maudsley building on the Maudsley Hospital campus in Denmark Hill, south London.
CAHMS teams will be moving in over a number of weeks and start to bring this incredible building to life. King’s College London colleagues will move into their space later in the year followed by the Clinical Research Facility.
Speaking about this move-in phase, Interim Chief Executive Ade Odunlade said, “I am so excited to see our CAMHS colleagues move in as we open this new chapter for the Trust, the King’s Maudsley Partnership, and the children and young people we support.
“All the elements the Pears Maudsley Centre brings together will combine to create one of the world finest centres for children and young people’s mental health care and research, and I am very much looking forward to the grand opening of the centre next year.”
This is more than just a new building. Co-designed with young people, the Pears Maudsley Centre is a vibrant and welcoming space cleverly uses light, outdoor space, artwork and soft furnishings to help ease anxiety.
It is a place that makes things feel brighter, welcomes visitors and meets diverse needs. Its design maximises natural light and incorporates dimmable lighting, artwork and natural materials to create a calming environment. It has landscaped outdoor terraces with extensive planting on each of its eight floors — capped by a roof terrace for use by children and young people using the centre’s services. This provides the calming, relaxing spaces difficult to achieve in a traditional inner-city hospital building.
There are also specially designed spaces for the outstanding school to allow young people receiving care to continue their education.
Art rooms, spaces for cooking and horticulture therapy, external terraces with outdoor play and tailored learning spaces contribute to a modern, community-minded space, redefining what mental health services look and feel like .
Later this year a new inpatient ward will open offering world-class facilities and a therapeutic environment to help young people on their journey to recovery .
The centre has been made possible thanks to a £10m donation from Maudsley Charity alongside the incredible generosity of major donors, foundations, and individual supporters.
King’s Maudsley Partnership
The building will also be home to the King’s Maudsley Partnership for Children and Young People, a unique collaboration between the Trust’s specialist clinicians and leading academics at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience- supported by Maudsley Charity – focused on improving the lives of children and young people living with mental health conditions and neurodiversity.
The final stages of work are underway on the new building’s state-of-the-art clinical research facility. When completed later this year, clinical academics and scientists from King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience ( IoPPN ) will join clinical colleagues in the Pears Maudsley Centre and work together to deliver groundbreaking research. Using the latest evidence and innovations made possible by the building’s specialist facilities, the King’s Maudsley Partnership will support clinical teams to deliver the best possible care, improving both the quality and efficiency of mental health services, and translating research into practical treatments to benefit young people in the shortest possible time.
Together we will transform our understanding and treatment of young people’s mental health.
