UK First: Univa and First Steps ED Go Live with the First Digital Stepped Care Pathway for ARFID, Significantly Reducing Waiting Times

11th August 2026, Hertfordshire, UK. Univa, the digital health company transforming eating disorder care, and First Steps ED, one of the UK’s leading eating disorder charities, today announced the launch of the UK’s first digital stepped care pathway for Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). The pathway is now integrated into existing care pathways in Hertfordshire, expanding a partnership that began with the organisations’ pioneering primary care pilot for eating disorders in 2025.

The launch marks a first for the NHS. No stepped care model – one that starts with the least intensive intervention, escalating for those that need it – for ARFID has ever been delivered digitally at this scale, and no ARFID pathway has been able to offer families support so soon after they are referred. From go live, every family referred into the pathway begins evidence-based care quickly. This significantly reduces waiting times, typically bringing them down to about a week for the triage process, after which access to care is given immediately.

 

A solution to one of the fastest growing pressures on children’s mental health services

Community eating disorder services (CEDS) estimate ARFID now accounts for 40 to 50 per cent of their referrals, yet most Trusts and ICSs have no dedicated ARFID pathway. Children and young people with ARFID present through many doors at once: CAMHS, CEDS, paediatrics, neurodevelopmental services, learning disability services, Mental Health Support Teams in schools, and GPs. Too often they are bounced between services while their needs escalate. Specialist ARFID clinicians are scarce, access varies widely by geography, and there have been few scalable early intervention programmes for services to step families into.

National eating disorder guidance for children and young people now asks ICBs and CEDS to provide ARFID provision. The Univa and First Steps ED pathway gives commissioners a way to meet that requirement without building a large new workforce, without new rooms or infrastructure, and without adding to clinician caseloads.

 

How the digital stepped care pathway works

Families are referred through a single online portal by GPs, schools or Trust teams – whichever door they already use. Every family receives an initial triage call from First Steps ED, whose trained team screens each referral for clinical risk and safeguarding needs, before seamlessly transitioning to Univa for an automated, needs-led assessment, with results reviewed by the First Steps ED team. Built on the PARDI-AR-Q, the assessment identifies each child’s core ARFID drivers, whether sensory sensitivity, fear of adverse consequences or low interest in food, alongside an automatically calculated nutritional deficiency profile.

Every family then starts care instantly on the Univa Care Platform through a carer led app-based programme, open to any child or young person under the age of 18. The parent or carer leads the programme, with carer and child working through the app together. The self-guided programme runs for 10 weeks, with modules that adapt to the needs of each child, including tailored content for autistic children and those with ADHD, built on FBT ARFID, CBT ARFID, the New Maudsley Model and real-world clinical experience. A personalised food exposure engine uses playful, gamified experiments that move at each family’s pace.

The clinical intelligence sits in the pathway engine. Wellbeing check ins, routine outcome measures and engagement data flow continuously from the app. Where the data shows a service user needs more, a step up is flagged automatically and reviewed by First Steps ED team, who confirm every escalation decision. The family then transitions seamlessly, inside the same app, to up to ten one-to-one video sessions with trained First Steps ED Specialist Support Officers. Many families will have their needs fully met by the self-guided programme, and those that need one-to-one support will receive it in a way that streamlines resources. Throughout the pathway, First Steps ED provides the triage, safeguarding, specialist support, escalation and clinical oversight.

The pathway does not replace urgent medical or specialist mental health support. Where a child needs that care, First Steps ED escalates to the appropriate service without delay.

This is what makes the model uniquely scalable and cost effective for the NHS. Thousands of families can start care on the same day without increasing clinician caseload, while specialist capacity is concentrated on complexity. The result is a dramatically lower cost per successful outcome and a pathway that stays sustainable as demand grows.

 

Delivering the 10 Year Health Plan in practice

The pathway is a working example of all three shifts set out in Fit for the Future, the 10 Year Health Plan for England: from hospital to community, from treatment to prevention, and from analogue to digital. Care reaches families in their homes, intervenes before needs escalate to crisis, and is delivered through a digital backbone that gives clinicians live visibility of every family in the pathway.

 

Rich Andrews, CEO and Co-Founder of Univa, said:

“Commissioners tell us the same thing everywhere: ARFID demand is rising fast, it surfaces across every children’s service, and there is no workforce to meet it. This pathway answers that. One shared ARFID engine that makes every service in a Trust or ICS ARFID-ready, with care that starts soon after a family is referred. This has never been done before in the NHS, and it changes what commissioners can expect from an eating disorder pathway: immediate access, measurable outcomes and a cost base that scales.”

 

Daniel Magson, CEO of First Steps ED, said:

“Families affected by ARFID have too often been passed between services with nowhere designed for them. Our partnership with Univa in Hertfordshire means that ends. Every family gets support straight away, and our specialists step in exactly when a child needs more intensive help. This is stepped care as it should be: needs-led, fast and built around the family. It is an exciting next chapter in a partnership that has already shown what digital innovation and clinical expertise can achieve together.”

 

Built on a proven partnership

The launch builds on the partnership announced in September 2025, when Univa and First Steps ED brought the first digital dual care programme for eating disorders into NHS primary care, backed by six Primary Care Networks across Hertfordshire. That pilot established the clinical model, the referral relationships and the trust between the two organisations that now underpin the ARFID pathway. Together, the two programmes point to a new national model for eating disorder care: digital first, family powered and clinically assured.

 

Information for NHS commissioners and Trusts

The ARFID care programme is designed to be commissioned as one ARFID capability across an entire Trust or ICS footprint. NHS commissioners, ICB leads and Mental Health Trusts interested in bringing the pathway to their region can request a briefing and demonstration by contacting partnerships@univa.health.

 

About Univa

Founded in 2024, Univa Health is transforming the care experience for people with eating disorders and their families. Driven by science and harnessing the power of technology and design, the Univa Care Platform combines real time monitoring with interactive, evidence based therapeutic tools to deliver earlier intervention, more personalised support and sustained recovery. Its unique dual app programmes provide tailored pathways for both the individual and their carer, harnessing the power of the family as an active partner in recovery. Built as a platform of tools to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of both NHS and private healthcare systems, Univa empowers clinicians to deliver care that is proactive, scalable and compassionate. www.univa.health

About First Steps ED

First Steps ED is a national eating disorder charity supporting people of all ages, genders and backgrounds. In the field of eating disorders, we offer the widest range of high-quality care focused on the needs of the individual. The services include psychotherapy, counselling, workshops, peer support and online tools for everyone impacted by eating disorders, including family and loved ones. https://firststepsed.co.uk/

About ARFID

ARFID (Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder) is an eating disorder characterised by avoidance or restriction of food that is not driven by body image concerns. Drivers include sensory sensitivities, fear of adverse consequences such as choking or vomiting, and low interest in eating. ARFID frequently co-occurs with autism and ADHD and is estimated to account for 40 to 50 per cent of referrals into community eating disorder services.

 

Media enquiries

Univa: media@univa.health

First Steps ED: Rachel Gonzaga, press@firststepsed.co.uk