Original study2026Read the paper →
Families dealing with childhood anxiety may struggle to fit therapy around school, work, and everyday routines. School-based NHS teams in Kent and Medway report encouraging results from online programmes that combine activities at home with regular professional support.
In an announcement on 6 November 2026, Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust said 71.4% of children aged 5–12 were considered recovered after a seven-week course. It separately reported that 77% of teenagers receiving another programme no longer met the criteria for social anxiety disorder.
Those figures describe two different treatments and outcomes, rather than a single recovery rate for all young people. The trust’s announcement does not provide the sample sizes or explain how many families started, completed, or were assessed after each programme.
For younger children, Online Support and Intervention, known as OSI, helps parents use cognitive behavioural therapy strategies at home. The programme has been available locally since 2023 and includes support from a therapist, so parents do not need formal training in the approach.
Cognitive behavioural therapy examines how thoughts, feelings, and actions interact. In this setting, the practical work is delivered with a parent or carer rather than relying entirely on a child attending separate face-to-face sessions.
The teenage programme, Online Social Anxiety Cognitive Therapy for Adolescents, or OSCA, was introduced in 2025 for those aged 13–18. Participants work through activities tailored to their concerns over about 13 weeks, with a therapist releasing content and providing weekly support calls.
Social anxiety involves fear and distress in social situations, rather than simply being quiet or preferring some time alone. The teenage result concerns whether participants continued to meet criteria for that particular condition, not whether every aspect of their mental health had improved.
Both programmes are intended to offer flexibility over where and when families access treatment while maintaining contact with professionals. Digital delivery here does not mean leaving children to manage an app without support.
The trust says its school-based teams currently support more than half of schools across the county, with full coverage expected by 2030. Their work includes low mood, worry, anxiety, low confidence, and behavioural difficulties.
The reported outcomes need to be read with caution. Without detailed assessment methods, a comparison group, or information about longer-term follow-up, the announcement cannot show how much improvement was attributable to treatment or how lasting it was.
It also does not establish that the same results would apply to every child, to more complex difficulties, or to families who could not complete the programmes. Recovery at one assessment should not be assumed to mean that anxiety can never return.
For services, the next useful step would be fuller reporting of who received support and how outcomes were measured. For families, the announcement describes an option combining online treatment with human support, rather than evidence that digital therapy is suitable for everyone.
