NHS Talking Therapies Monthly Statistics Including Employment Advisors, Performance January 2024

Outcomes in NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression are measured in terms of three measures:

recovery,
reliable improvement,
and reliable recovery.

Recovery

Recovery in NHS Talking Therapies is measured in terms of ‘caseness’ – a term which means a referral has severe enough symptoms of anxiety or depression to be regarded as a clinical case. A referral has moved to recovery if they were defined as a clinical case at the start of their treatment (‘at caseness’) and not as a clinical case at the end of their treatment, measured by scores from questionnaires tailored to their specific condition.

The Government target is that 50% of eligible referrals to NHS Talking Therapies services should move to recovery.⁶
 

Reliable improvement

A referral has shown reliable improvement if there is a significant improvement in their condition following a course of treatment, measured by the difference between their first and last scores on questionnaires tailored to their specific condition.

Reliable recovery

A referral has reliably recovered if they meet the criteria for both the recovery and reliable improvement measures. That is, they have moved from being a clinical case at the start of treatment to not being a clinical case at the end of treatment, and there has also been a significant improvement in their condition.

The chart below compares recovery, reliable improvement, and reliable recovery rates across a period of thirteen months.

Consistently, a higher proportion show reliable improvement than move to recovery; this is because reliable improvement only looks at the scale of change, and not whether the referral has moved below the clinical caseness threshold.

Reliable recovery, which requires both recovery and reliable improvement, is the most stringent measure and therefore has the lowest rate.

Each quarter, more detailed data are published about recovery, reliable improvement and reliable recovery. The most recent quarterly data, Quarter 3 2023/24, can be found at: NHS Talking Therapies Monthly Statistics Including Employment Advisors, Performance December 2023 and Quarter 3 2023/24 data official statistics.

For an explanation of the terms used and further information about how measures are calculated in NHS Talking Therapies see the 'Guide to IAPT data and publications' at NHS Talking Therapies data set reports.

⁵ See p16-17 of The Mandate: A mandate from the Government to NHS England: April 2015 to March 2016