Psychological Therapies: reports on the use of IAPT services, England September 2019 Final including reports on the IAPT pilots and Quarter 2 2019-20 data

One of the stated targets of the IAPT programme is that for referrals finishing a course of treatment in the month, 75% enter treatment within 6 weeks, and 95% within 18 weeks⁵. These are based on the waiting time between the referral date and the first attended treatment appointment.

In September 2019, this calculation is performed as follows:

43,720 / 50,103 * 100 = 87.3%

Sub-national waiting times rates are published in the Monthly Activity Data File as columns ‘FirstTreatment6WeeksFinishedCourseRate’ and  ‘FirstTreatment18WeeksFinishedCourseRate’.

The chart below shows that, nationally, waiting times measures have consistently been above the target, particularly the proportion seen within 6 weeks.

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

⁵See p16-17 of The Mandate: A mandate from the Government to NHS England: April 2015 to March 2016, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/386221/NHS_England_Mandate.pdf