The NHS 10-Year Plan sets ambitious goals for mental health, but Psyomics argues that only through genuine collaboration, scalable and evidence-backed innovation, and a relentless focus on patient outcomes can ambition be turned into real, system-wide change.
The NHS 10-Year Plan sets out ambitious goals for mental health services, but delivering on these promises is far from straightforward. The challenges aren’t about ambition; they’re about the system itself. Commissioning, procurement, and executing meaningful change is complex, slow, and often risk-averse. For startups like Psyomics, a digital front-door technology provider for mental health services, these barriers are very real.
Navigating Risky Hurdles
The NHS is designed to mitigate risk. Decisions pass through multiple layers of approval, budgets are annual and inflexible, and movement of funds is tightly restricted. Promising innovations can face slow progress or get stuck in “pilot graveyards” with no clear path to scale. Change fatigue is real: staff are prioritising immediate pressures over potential innovations, capacity is limited, and the system isn’t set up for rapid transformation.
Startups operate differently. Risk is part of our DNA. We iterate quickly, make fast decisions and are conscious of cash flow. Change isn’t a threat, it’s essential for survival and growth. This mismatch between ambition and action explains why collaboration often feels like an uphill struggle. Procurement frameworks prioritise risk mitigation, not innovation, and complex approval layers, vague contracts, and fragmented commissioning mechanisms can kill momentum.
Turning Ambition Into Reality
Delivering the NHS 10-Year Plan requires more than good ideas; it demands solutions designed for scale, accountability, and sustainability.
‘The NHS is designed to mitigate risk’ ~ Dr Melinda Rees CEO
In this landscape, where the NHS is both commissioner and service provider, Psyomics acts as a trusted assessment platform across primary, secondary, and tertiary care. By reducing repeated patient storytelling, accelerating time to treatment, and standardising assessments, the platform exemplifies how digital innovation can align with the 10-Year Plan while overcoming systemic barriers. Our proven track record of supporting the NHS includes
· Scalability: map existing care pathways to see where new solutions fit naturally. Innovations should follow outcome-based “test and scale” models, rather than pilots with no clear path forward, to ensure successful initiatives can grow across the system.
· Accountability: be transparent about a pilot’s scope, limitations, and ambitions. Embed practical milestones and draw on frameworks such as
NICE’s Early Value Assessment to make progress measurable and aligned with system-wide priorities.
· Sustainability: speak the NHS language – cost-effectiveness, ROI, and cost-utility. Collaborate with analysts, academics, and evaluation experts. Every innovation must be backed by robust evidence, demonstrating value to clinicians, patients, and the wider system.
Real-world Impact
Psyomics helped the NHS to see the benefits of this approach across multiple patient pathways
· Adult Community Services: the Psyomics platform captures robust symptom assessments alongside patient histories, helping clinicians select the right care pathway. This improves engagement, streamlines clinical flow, reduces administrative burden and allows faster, more comprehensive initial assessments.
· Children and Young People: early symptom assessments, including input from carers, support more refined pathway selection. Clinicians can engage patients and families more effectively, streamline assessments and track outcomes using PROMs.
· Neurodiversity Diagnosis: long waits can be stressful, but the Psyomics platform identifies comorbidities early, helping clinicians signpost care and provide a positive waiting experience. A biopsychosocial formulation upfront enables priority pathway selection and holistic care.
· Talking Therapies: comprehensive patient profiling identifies complex cases quickly, freeing Tier 3 clinicians’ time and improving referral-to-recovery rates.
The Path Forward: Partnership, Capacity, and Outcomes
Although improvements are slowly being made, the system isn’t built for innovation. Driving real change requires partnerships. Early collaboration builds credibility, aligns motivations and ensures relevance. Increasing capacity must be a priority, not an afterthought. Above all, patient outcomes must guide every decision.
Inaction is the greatest risk to patients. Progress starts with trust, shared purpose, and a mindset shift: change isn’t a threat…it’s progress, but only when driven by clarity and commitment from all sides.
The Psyomics Approach
Psyomics has developed a digital pathway to streamline mental health assessments for adults aged 18-65. Created with clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, and the University of Cambridge, the platform standardises how clinicians capture patient data, reducing inconsistencies, administrative burden, and delays.
Patients provide information on symptoms, social determinants, and personal factors such as suicidality, family dynamics, and financial security. Clinicians use this data to determine the most appropriate care pathway, ensuring timely, personalised support. Key benefits include
· User-friendly Process: 25 per cent of submissions occur outside office hours, increasing accessibility.
· Comprehensive Data Collection: clinicians make faster, better-informed decisions.
· Streamlined Referrals: patients no longer repeat their story multiple times, improving engagement.
‘Patient outcomes must guide every decision’ ~ Dr Melinda Rees CEO
By combining clinical expertise with cutting-edge technology, Psyomics is helping shape the future of mental health care, making it faster, more efficient, and more patient-centred.
Final Thought
The NHS 10-Year Plan is ambitious, but its success will depend on more than intent. The current system often works against innovation, making collaboration essential to driving change. Early partnerships can build credibility and ensure new approaches remain relevant, while patient outcomes must always come first – underpinned by trust, shared purpose, and clear commitment. Delivering the plan requires systems that welcome innovation, partnerships that close gaps, and technologies that allow clinicians to focus on what they do best: caring for patients.
