Announcement of methodological change:: Improving Access to Psychological Therapies, Key Performance Indicators (IAPT KPIs)

The Department of Health IAPT Central Team issued revised technical guidance1 for IAPT Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in May 2012. Changes to the guidance will affect the following indicators, next due for publication in September 2012:

• KPI3b: The number of active referrals who have waited more than 28 days from referral to first treatment/ first therapeutic session (at the end of the reporting quarter)
• KPI4: The number of people who have entered (i.e. received) psychological therapies during the reporting quarter
• KPI5: The number of people who have completed treatment (minimum 2 treatment contacts) during the reporting quarter

Details of changes affecting the publication are as follows:

1. Some age ranges defined in KPI5 will change, as outlined in the table below.

The new age breakdowns will be used in the forthcoming publication and thereafter, but will affect only the provisional Q1 2012/13 data (not the Q4 refresh 2011/12 data).

2. The revised guidance now allows providers to pause/stop the clock when calculating waiting times (see Annex 2 of the guidance). This directly affects KPI 3b, and also has an impact on the numbers entering treatment (KPI 4). These indicators should therefore not be directly compared with those published previously. The new rules should not have been adopted for the calculation of waiting times in IAPT data before 2012/13, although we cannot guarantee that this is the case with all providers.

3. Previously the guidance did not specify the point in treatment at which the age for KPI5 was calculated; age is now taken at the point of referral. It is not known whether providers adopted this convention before the guidance was issued, so caution should be exercised when comparing 2012/13 data with earlier data.

The revised guidance is available. 

IAPT Key Performance Indicator Technical Guidance for Adult IAPT Services 2012/13 (May 2012).

If you have any queries about the new KPI Guidance, please contact the IAPT national team

Additionally, Indicator SQU16_05, ‘The proportion of referrals that are entering treatment’, is no longer included in the NHS Operating Framework and will therefore not be published from quarter 1 2012/13 onwards.

The latest version of the NHS Operating Framework is available.