Psychological Therapies, Annual Report on the Use of Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Services - England, 2012-13

• A total of 883,968 new referrals were received by IAPT service nationally, representing 761,848 people.
• 434,247 referrals entered treatment¹, accounting for 49 per cent of the number of referrals received.
• Of those referrals that received treatment in the year, 274,975 referrals (63 per cent) were seen within 28 days or less, while 92 per cent (400,786 referrals) received a first treatment appointment in 90 days or less.
• 54,430 referrals nationally were able to achieve recovery² in 2012/13. This represents 43 per cent of those records that were eligible for outcome assessment and were at caseness³ at the beginning of treatment (127,060 referrals). Three Local Area teams met the national target, having 50 per cent of referrals (which were eligible for assessment and who were at caseness) moving to recovery.
• 534,721 referrals ended in the year, with 50 per cent of ended referrals attributed to patients either declining or dropping out of treatment (268,998 referrals).
• In the year 144,210 referrals closed, having received at least two treatment appointments, rendering them as eligible for outcome assessment⁴. This represents 16 per cent of the referrals which began in the year and 27 per cent of all referrals that ended in the year.
• In 2012/13, 82,910 referrals showed reliable improvement⁵, representing 57 per cent of the number of referrals eligible for assessment in the year. 51,900 referrals showed reliable recovery⁶. This equates to 41 per cent of those referrals eligible for assessment which were at caseness at the start of treatment.
• Of the 761,848⁷ people being referred to IAPT services in the year 36 per cent (274,409) were male and 62 per cent (474,963) were female (gender was not recorded in 2 per cent of cases), with most people being referred to services between the ages of 20 and 49 (71 per cent of people were referred in this age group).
• The data show that in 2012/13 84 per cent of those accessing IAPT, excluding those whose ethnicity was unknown or not stated (which account for 30 per cent of the total number of people referred), were categorised as "White British", making up the majority of IAPT users. The number of people categorised as having 'Mixed' ethnicity was the highest in proportion to the number of people in the general population with the same ethnic status. The ethnic category with the next highest proportion was 'Black or Black British'.

Footnotes

1. In order to enter treatment a referral must have a first treatment appointment in the period. Being referred to IAPT services does not necessarily mean an individual will enter treatment, as they may be referred elsewhere, be discharged or decline treatment for a number of reasons before treatment is provided. 
2. In order for a referral to exhibit recovery they must have a score that is less than the caseness threshold on both the PHQ9 and ADSM measures used at their last score taken.
3. In order to be classed as at "caseness" a referral must have either a PHQ9 or ADSM score which is above the threshold required to be classed as a case. Please see the Appendix for more details on threshold scores for each measure.
4. This is also referred to as "Completed Treatment" in this report and in Quarterly reports.
5. In order to show reliable improvement, a referral must show a positive change in scores which is greater than the measurement error of the questionnaire used, for either the PHQ9 or ADSM (or both), without showing deterioration on the other measure used.
6. A referral is classed as having reliable recovery if it has met the conditions for both recovery and reliable improvement.
7. One individual may have multiple referrals across providers or at different times throughout the year, and so there are more referrals received than distinct people referred to IAPT services.