31 Oct 2025
Verified by Maudsley is a quality assurance framework created by SLaM to assess and validate digital mental health tools. Developed with clinicians, researchers, and service users, it ensures digital solutions are safe, effective, and trusted by those who use them.
Background:The rapid expansion of digital mental health tools offers unprecedented access to support for people worldwide. However, this growth has also raised concerns about the safety, efficacy, and overall quality of such tools. To address this, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) developed Verified by Maudsley – a robust quality assurance framework designed to assess and validate digital mental health products.
Developing a Trusted Standard:Verified by Maudsley provides a verification mark and assurance of quality for the best digital mental health solutions. The framework was co-designed by mental health service users, academic and clinical professionals, and digital health experts to ensure it remains comprehensive, transparent, and user-centred.
Structured around three core domains, the framework evaluates whether digital tools are safe, effective, and person-centred. To pilot the service, SLaM partnered with a mental fitness app that offers personalised, AI-supported self-help tools. The app underwent a detailed review process by a panel of clinical experts and successfully met the framework’s threshold, becoming the first digital mental health tool to receive the Verified by Maudsley kitemark.
This initiative sets a new benchmark for quality and trust in digital mental health innovation, supporting patients, clinicians, and developers alike.
“Verified by Maudsley represents a major step forward in ensuring the safety, effectiveness, and integrity of digital mental health tools. By bringing together clinicians, researchers, and service users, we’ve created a trusted framework that helps people identify digital solutions they can truly rely on.”