Publication, Part of Psychological Therapies, Reports on the use of IAPT services
Psychological Therapies: reports on the use of IAPT services, England August 2020 Final including reports on the IAPT pilots.
Official statistics, Experimental statistics
Outcomes
Outcomes in IAPT are measured in terms of three measures:
- recovery,
- reliable improvement,
- and reliable recovery.
Recovery
Recovery in IAPT 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 IAPT services should move to recovery.4
51.9% of eligible referrals moved to recovery
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.
69.2% of referrals finishing a course of treatment showed reliable improvement
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.
49.3% of referrals reliably recovered
The chart below compares recovery, reliable improvement, and reliable recovery rates across a period of twelve 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 1 2020/21, can be found at: http://digital.nhs.uk/pubs/iaptjun20.
For an explanation of the terms used and further information about how measures are calculated in IAPT see the 'Guide to IAPT data and publications' at www.digital.nhs.uk/iaptreports
Last edited: 21 September 2023 5:12 pm