Publication, Part of Psychological Therapies, Reports on the use of IAPT services
Psychological Therapies: reports on the use of IAPT services, England May 2020 Final including reports on the IAPT pilots
Official statistics, Experimental statistics
IAPT Final May 2020 csv, Monthly Time Series Report and Interactive Dashboard updated
The final May 2020 csv, monthly time series report and interactive dashboard have been updated to only report data recorded against current organisations. Activity recorded against former CCGs is now available under the new CCG.
26 October 2020 08:59 AM
IAPT Entering Treatment Rolling Quarter Report Updated
The entering treatment rolling quarter report has been updated to only report data recorded against current organisations. Activity recorded against former CCGs is now available under the new CCG.
20 November 2020 08:57 AM
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.⁵.
50.6% 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.
68.2% 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.
48.0% 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 case-ness 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 activity. The most recent quarterly data, Quarter 4 2019/20, is available.
For an explanation of the terms used and further information about how measures are calculated in IAPT read the Guide to IAPT data and publications.
⁵ See p16-17 of The Mandate: A mandate from the Government to NHS England: April 2015 to March 2016,
Last edited: 25 November 2021 1:37 pm