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Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Data Set

Collecting information about people in contact with adult psychological therapy services in England.

The Adult Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme began in the NHS in 2008 and has transformed the treatment of anxiety disorders and depression in adults in England.

Further information about the programme can be found on the NHS England Adult IAPT Programme web pages.

The IAPT Data Set was developed with the IAPT Programme as a patient level, output based, secondary uses data set which aims to deliver robust, comprehensive, nationally consistent and comparable information for patients accessing NHS-funded IAPT Services in England.

This national data set has been collected since April 2012 and is a mandatory submission for all NHS funded care, including care delivered by independent sector healthcare providers.

What we collect

The IAPT Data Set includes information on:

  • patient demographics - including geographical locations, gender, age, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and disabilities
  • care pathways referral details, mental health care cluster details and presenting complaints information
  • care contacts and care activities: session details and any clinical, economic and social outcomes recorded relating to the treatments provided and outcome measures collected
  • waiting times information
  • patient experience questionnaires covering treatment and assessment

Version 2.0 Update – Data collection from 1 April 2020

An update to the data set (version 2.0) will go live in April 2020 to collect additional information, such as:

  • internet enabled therapies: information around the delivery of these emerging models of therapy
  • long term physical health conditions and medically unexplained symptoms: bringing in the pilot data items into the core data set
  • additional employment items: to better understand employment outcomes and the provision of employment support
  • languages: to further understand patient demographics
  • care personnel qualifications: to support a richer picture of the IAPT workforce and enable better planning

Read more about IAPT v2.0

How the IAPT data set is used

The IAPT Data Set provides a comprehensive national picture of the use of IAPT services in England and supports a variety of secondary use functions such as:

  • commissioning
  • clinical audit
  • research
  • service planning
  • inspection and regulation
  • monitoring government policies and legislation
  • local and national performance management and benchmarking
  • national reporting and analysis

Related pages

  1. internal

    Submit data to the IAPT data set

    All organisations that provide NHS funded IAPT services in England must submit data. This page explains the data you need to submit and how.

  2. internal

    Submit data to the IAPT data set v.2.0

    Version 2.0 of the IAPT Data Set has received approval from the Data Coordination Board for collection from 1 April 2020. This page explains the data you need to submit and how.

  3. internal

    IAPT pilot collections

    We currently maintain two pilot data collections for IAPT services, which are submitted alongside the core IAPT Data Set by those services involved in the pilots.

Last edited: 10 September 2019 10:30 am