Improving mental health support for children and young people

In our latest Meet Team OneLondon feature we are delighted to introduce Ben Pierce who is Data Lead for the MINDS-LC project aimed at transforming mental health support for children and young people across the Capital. MINDS-LC is one four NHS-led Driver Projects that will help to showcase the potential of the new London Secure Data Environment (SDE) and inform its ongoing development, while delivering health improvement benefits for Londoners (17 December 2025).

Where do you work/what is your background?

I am the data lead for MINDS-LC, a new Driver Project for the London SDE, which focuses on establishing the best and deepest base for researching children’s mental health. Previously I served as Head of Data Analytics for the North West London-based Discover-NOW database. I have led projects researching real-world evidence in health areas such as chronic kidney disease, metabolic disease, CVD, mental health, and population health management. I have a PhD in chemistry and was working within RNA vaccine programme during the pandemic.

Additionally, from my more general role within the London SDE Research Service, I’ll also be supporting approved researchers to apply for access to the linked longitudinal datasets stored within the London SDE. 

Tell us about MINDS-LC and why it is important?

Nearly 1 in 4 people in London are children. There is some evidence of trends of mental health risks and conditions being experienced by London’s younger population, though there is no form of standardised measure, whilst deep and insightful associations between health records and educational performance is lacking.

MINDS-LC joins senior experts and leaders in children’s mental health from various areas in London. Uniquely, London’s patients have differences in ethnic groups, wealth, equitable access to health services, as well as pockets with varying cultural differences. MINDS-LC aims to create a data-driven platform to best understand how this broad and diverse population can be best served, whilst the health ecosystem can learn from our findings to address identified issues of access and needed care.

The data infrastructure is designed to encompass linked primary and secondary data, which is de-identified to protect individuals and ensure patient safety. With additional databases that are linked to health records, MINDS-LC can unveil previously inaccessible associations between the health and educational welfare of London’s children. This information will be communicated to the public, research communities, and regional and national mental health policy teams, to best provide the most accurate and precise profiles of this important demographic.

Importantly, MINDS-LC will convene and work with children’s advisory groups, who will guide the team and provide input on issues, risks, and questions from children and their families.

How will the London SDE support your project?

The traditional way of developing the data structures required to achieve the goals of MINDS-LC entails working with dozens of organisations and agree on safe data sharing. This would take months to years to come to fruition. With the environment offered by the London SDE, the backdrops for data ingestion and linkages are already in place, as are analytical tools for data retrieval and analysis. Our team from London SDE are also on hand to support further improvements and other options for analysis.

Validated researchers for MINDS-LC will then be able to have the longest and broadest lines of sights to applying the most pertinent questions, such as: what are the associations between multimorbidity or educational performance for children on the mental health service waiting list? Or how accessible are mental health services to children in London? Are there differences based on demography or geography, and how does this depend on mental health status and need? MINDS-LC will work with local children’s advisory groups and senior mental health stakeholders to target the most impactful findings. We have designed MINDS-LC to benefit NHS services, policies, as well as individual patients and their families.

In a year’s time what do you hope to have achieved with MINDS-LC?

We have a lot of ambition for the next year, though we must apply realism and take on a pragmatic approach. We are completing a data sharing application to on board educational data, whilst we are creating working groups per research area: children’s mental health prevalence, mental health crises, and integrated neighbourhood teams. We look forward to progressing along these three areas and reporting findings when available. Our ultimate goal is to establish a foundation for data enquiries to be made feasible through data and methodology harmonisation.

Find out more about the London SDE Driver Projects here.