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Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT)

A patient-level, secondary-uses data set, which provides nationally consistent and comparable person-based information about people referred to IAPT services for depression and anxiety. It contains information extracted or derived from local information systems within NHS commissioned services across England. 

Page contents

New name for Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT)

Following an extensive engagement process, NHS England national mental health team has recently announced a new name for Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services: NHS Talking Therapies, accompanied by the following tagline: for anxiety and depression.

For further information about the name change, please visit the NHS England pages What’s in a name? NHS Talking Therapies, for anxiety and depression the new name for IAPT services.

The data set will continue to be referred to as ‘IAPT’ until the next uplift of the data set has received DAPB approval.

Data set versions as presented in the DARS online system

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) v1.5

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) v2

Access method

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) v1.5 - The NHS England Secure Data Environment (SDE) service and extract

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) v2 - The NHS England Secure Data Environment (SDE) service and extract

Data set available in packages

Packages are pre-defined groups of fields and or tables that allow a customer to select from a list that best meets their needs. Packages do not allow a customer to customise their field or table selection.

  • Yes

Period of data coverage

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) v1.5 01/04/2013 to 31/8/2020

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) v2 01/09/2020 ongoing

Geographical scope of data

England

Linkable to other data sets

  • Yes - options for linking using pseudonymised data

Data collection process

Submitted by: NHS funded psychological care (adults) providers

Collected by: NHS England

Frequency: Monthly

Clinical coding systems

Does the data set include any standardised systems of coding?

  • SNOMED CT (a structured clinical vocabulary for use in electronic health records.)
  • ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases classifies diseases and other health conditions.)
Full list of coding systems considered

SNOMED-CT (a structured clinical vocabulary for use in electronic health records.)

ICD  (International Classification of Diseases classifies diseases and other health conditions.)

OPCS-4  (Office of Population Census and Surveys classification of interventions and surgical procedures)

dm+d  (Dictionary of descriptions and codes which represent medicines and devices in use across the NHS.)

NICIP (National Interim Clinical Imaging Procedure Codes provides consistent recording of imaging procedures.)

UCUM  (Unified Code for Units of Measure (UCUM) is a code system intended to include all units of measurement.)

TFCs (Treatment Function Codes are used to record treatment activities undertaken)

Read Code v2  (A coded thesaurus of clinical terms.)

Read Code Clinical Terms v3 (A coded thesaurus of clinical terms.)

UICC (Union for International Cancer Control classification of cancer by anatomic disease extent.)

IMD  (Indices of Multiple Deprivation measures relative poverty.)

Derived fields

Standardised formulation may be applied across multiple data sets to generate commonly derived fields.  Any standard derivations applicable to this data set are listed below. Please note that this does not include bespoke derivations created specifically for the individual data set.

  • CCG_OF_RESIDENCE (Clinical Commissioning Group covering the area in which the patient’s postcode falls where data relates to pre 1 July 2022. Otherwise ICB Sub Location.)
  • LSOA_OF_RESIDENCE (The Lower Super Output Area (lowest level without being disclosive) covering the area in which the patient’s postcode falls.)
  • CCG_OF_REGISTRATION (Clinical Commissioning Group which has a commissioning relationship with the GP Practice which the patient is registered at where data relates to pre 1 July 2022. Otherwise ICB Sub Location.)
Full list of standard derivations considered

GP_PRACTICE_CODE_TRACED (The GP Practice that the patient is registered at, as found when traced against the Person Demographic Service (PDS).)

CCG_OF_RESIDENCE (Clinical Commissioning Group covering the area in which the patient’s postcode falls where data relates to pre 1 July 2022. Otherwise ICB Sub Location.)

ICS_OF_RESIDENCE (The Integrated Care System covering the area in which the patient’s postcode falls. This will be null for any data relating to earlier than 1 July 2022.)

LA_OF_RESIDENCE (The Local Authority covering the area in which the patient’s postcode falls.)

LSOA_OF_RESIDENCE (The Lower Super Output Area (lowest level without being disclosive) covering the area in which the patient’s postcode falls.)

CCG_OF_REGISTRATION (Clinical Commissioning Group which has a commissioning relationship with the GP Practice which the patient is registered at where data relates to pre 1 July 2022. Otherwise ICB Sub Location.)

ICS_OF_REGISTRATION (The Integrated Care System covering the area in which the patient’s GP Practice falls. This will be null until for any data relating to earlier than 1 July 2022.)

LA_OF_REGISTRATION (The Local Authority covering the area in which the patient’s GP Practice falls.)

LSOA_OF_REGISTRATION (The Lower Super Output Area (lowest level without being disclosive) covering the area in which the patient’s GP Practice falls.)

Third party licensing

Does the data set require copyrighted clinical assessment tools or outcome measures that require a licence?

Advice and support

Governance of this data set is provided by:

Owning organisation: NHS England

Data Controller: NHS England

Data Processor: NHS England

NHS England provides a variety of functions for the data sets we make available.  Therefore, our knowledge and understanding of the data will vary, impacting the level of advice and support we can provide.

In relation to IAPT, we undertake end to end management of this data set. We can therefore provide a full advice, guidance and support service.

Supporting documentation, guidance and other useful resources

ARTICLE

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Data Set

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Data Set provides IAPT service providers and their system suppliers easy access to the information they need to implement the IAPT data set and submit IAPT services data.
ARTICLE

Office for National Statistics (ONS): Methods and systems used to collect ethnicity information in health administrative data sources, England: 2022 (January 2023)

This article uses findings from semi-structured qualitative interviews to explore potential sources of error and bias in the process of collecting ethnicity information across three NHS data sources: General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (GDPPR), Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT).
ARTICLE

Office for National Statistics (ONS): Understanding consistency of ethnicity data recorded in health-related administrative datasets in England: 2011 to 2021 (January 2023)

Comparisons showing variation in the recording of ethnicity data between the 2011 Census and electronic health records.

Last edited: 8 May 2025 1:03 pm