About

We are a grant-making charity rooted in south London. Our vision is a world where everyone who experiences mental illness, without exception, has access to the right care and support for them.  

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About Maudsley Charity
Our values and behaviours
Where we've come from
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We Are Maudsley Charity

Maudsley Charity is a grant-making charity that advances and accelerates positive change in mental health care in south London.

We fund and support key clinical, academic and community partners so that everyone who experiences mental illness, without exception, can access the care that’s right for them.

While our roots are embedded firmly in our local community in south London, we aim to also seed positive change in mental health care elsewhere in the UK, by sharing and amplifying the knowledge and evidence that is generated through the work that we fund.

We fund work led by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, research teams at King’s College London, and the voluntary and community sector to build a more equitable and effective mental health care system in south London. We share what we learn to promote change in other parts of the UK.

How we work

We focus our resources on work that is underpinned by evidence, experience, and equity.

Evidence

Good mental health care is based on reliable knowledge and information. We identify and financially back the most promising solutions that draw on and generate learning and evidence, working alongside South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London, and groups and organisations from our local community and voluntary sector. We share that learning and encourage others to adopt those solutions in other parts of the country.

Experience

Mental health care is more effective when it is informed by relevant expertise and lived experience. We continually strive to understand the perspectives of people in the communities we serve and encourage our grant holders to do the same when developing and delivering their work. We bring together people with lived experience of mental illness, their families and carers, clinicians, nurses, researchers and people working in community organizations to identify where our funding programmes can make the biggest difference.

Equity

Many people in our local communities are living against a backdrop of racism, exclusion, and poverty, all of which are proven to lead to more severe mental illness, reduced access to treatment and support, and worse long-term outcomes. We focus our funding on those most failed by services and society, driving improvements that benefit everyone. That’s why equity is more than a principle – it is an essential tool for advancing genuine change.

Rooted in our local area

We focus on the four boroughs served by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham, and Southwark). We aim to be an effective catalyst for positive change in the local mental health sector. We have strong relationships with our key partners and a wide range of local voluntary and community organisations and support them to work together to achieve our shared aims.

Advancing Equity

Experiences of racism, exclusion and poverty contribute to high levels of mental illness among people in our local area and negatively impact their access to the right treatment and support. For this reason, equity is more than a principle for us. It is a necessary tool for making genuine change. We prioritise work with a focus on those failed most by services, systems and society.

Maximising Impact Through Shared Knowledge

We want our funding to have maximum impact, so we look for projects with the potential to be taken up across the local area and the UK. We know the value of learning and evidence that includes diverse populations, so we work with grant holders and partners to share the outcomes of the initiatives we fund.

We provide space and opportunity for experts to connect and learn from each other, through hosting conferences and workshops at our ORTUS building, or through facilitating conversations with our connections across the mental health sector.

Our values and behaviours

We are ambitious for change

  • We are brave and intentional, taking calculated risks to tackle the complex challenge of delivering better mental health care for everyone.
  • We support the creation of new evidence, invest in fresh ideas, and help expand proven solutions to make a lasting difference.

We are compassionate

  • We engage everyone with care and respect, mindful of the contexts facing people who experience mental illness and people who deliver mental health care.
  • We lighten our grant holders’ workload by creating a balanced and efficient grant-making process from application to evaluation.

We are inclusive

  • We value knowledge, expertise and personal experience, championing diverse perspectives and empowering everyone to contribute to our decision-making.
  • We prioritise projects that actively involve people with lived experience in shaping care and treatment.

We act with integrity

  • We carefully consider our social and environmental impacts and uphold high ethical standards, especially in our fundraising, procurement, and investment practices.
  • We are fair and transparent in our grant-making and hold ourselves and our grant holders accountable for effective delivery.

We value relationships

  • We nurture relationships based on mutual respect, and acknowledge the roles played by all stakeholders in achieving our shared mission.
  • We provide the support, trust and open dialogue our colleagues and grant holders need to succeed.

We learn and share knowledge

  • We actively seek feedback, and use it to evaluate and improve our working practices
  • We provide a platform to share what works in our local communities and model change in other parts of the country.

Where we’ve come from

We can trace our history back to 1247 and the foundation of Bethlem Royal Hospital, the oldest psychiatric institution in the world.

In 1923 the Maudsley Hospital opened. Founded by Henry Maudsley, his vision was to create a centre where patient care, education and research came together to build knowledge and deliver the best possible treatment for patients.

In 1948 the Maudsley Hospital joined Bethlem Royal Hospital and later merged with Lewisham and Guy’s Mental Health Trust and Lambeth Mental Health services to become South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) in 1999. You can explore over 750 years of history by reading our timeline.

The hospital trust provides the widest range of mental health services in England including more than 50 national and specialist services for adults and children.

The Maudsley Hospital’s medical school, evolved to become the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), part of King’s College London. The IoPPN is a world leader in its field.

The unique and pioneering collaboration envisaged by Henry Maudsley continues today, supported by the Maudsley Charity.