Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Data Set

The Adult Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme began in the NHS in 2008 and has transformed treatment of adult anxiety disorders and depression in England. IAPT services provide evidence-based treatments for people with anxiety and depression.  Further information about the programme can be found on the NHS England Adult IAPT Programme web pages.

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Data Set

The IAPT data set was developed to collect national data on IAPT services, to support service delivery and inform clinical decision-making and encourage improved access to talking therapies for people with common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety disorders.  Started in April 2012, this data set is submitted by providers of NHS-funded IAPT care via the NHS Digital Bureau Service Portal.

Data collected

A variety of health and well-being data is collected, including:

• patient health questionnaire
• generalised anxiety disorder assessment questionnaire
• phobia screening questions
• disorder specific measures
• work and social adjustment scale
• employment questions
• waiting times

A need exists to consider changes to the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Data Set to ensure that the data set remains ‘fit for purpose’ and continues to meet policy reporting requirements and clinical practice, as well as supporting the NHS in service delivery.

In view of this, the Data Set Development Service have commenced work to develop Version 2 of the IAPT Data Set. The team are aiming to publish the Information Standard in August/September 2019, with the expectation of data collection starting from April 2020.

Requirements Gathering

Requirements gathering is already well under way and you can access the IAPT ‘Change Requests Summary’ tracker below, which contains all requirements received to date:

IAPT v2 Change Requests Summary

Information should be submitted monthly by providers of NHS-funded IAPT services. 

For full technical guidance on making a submission to the BSP, please refer to the IAPT v1.5 Technical Guidance documentation which is listed with the rest of the IAPT guidance documentation further down in this web page.

Read guidance for providers experiencing challenges in submitting data.

Download a PDF of the IAPT submission timetable.

Users of the Bureau Service Portal will also see submission deadlines highlighted on the IAPT home page.

The submission of IAPT data must always be undertaken using the latest Intermediate Database (IDB).

Following the commencement of data collection for the new EA and LTC pilots, a single IDB has now been made available which will hold any combination of v1.5, EA and LTC data. Details can be found in the table below:

The  IDB template to use is also made available from the IAPT NETWORK Yammer site, the IAPT Home Page on the Bureau Service Portal or on request from the NHS Digital Contact centre. Please send an email to enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk with ‘IAPT Master IDB’ in the subject line.

Further guidance with respect to the new IDB can be found in the IDB Submission Guidance document below:

This guidance documentation is for providers of NHS funded IAPT services who need to submit to the IAPT data set.

IAPT v1.5 was approved by the Standardisation Committee for Care Information (formerly Information Standards Board and now the data Coordination Board) for collection from 1st July 2014. The Data Set Specification and other documentation can be found on the NHS Digital Information Standards web pages.

Employment Advisors in IAPT Pilot

As part of the Spending Review 2015, investment in Employment Advisors (EA) in IAPT is being taken forward by the Work (Department for Work and Pensions) and Health (Department of Health) Joint Unit (WHU). The investment, used to increase the number of EAs embedded in IAPT services, will support more people with depression and anxiety to receive integrated psychological therapy and employment support. The EA in IAPT pilot will provide skills based interventions, information and practical support to help people receiving IAPT services to: remain in, return to, and find work.

Pilot sites have been selected on a voluntary basis to flow additional data alongside the mandated IAPT data set in relation to employment and benefits.

The additional data collection will commence from the submission window opening 6^th October 2017. The collection will take place for the duration of the Spending Review period with a view to including the new data items as part of the mandated IAPT standard in the future if this investment is evidenced to be successful.

The Technical Output Specification and associated Data Model have now been published, outlining a single new table containing the necessary additional data items required for submission:

Please see the 'IAPT Intermediate Databases' section below for details of the IDB to be used for submission and the IDB submission guidance document.

IAPT Long Term Conditions and Medically Unexplained Symptoms Early Implementer Program PILOT

Following the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, and subsequent implementation plan, NHS England is committed to increasing access to integrated evidence-based psychological therapies for people with anxiety/depression in the context of Long- Term physical health problems and persistent and distressing Medically Unexplained Symptoms.  

To support this, the IAPT programme has commissioned a pilot data collection and analysis of the impact of 'Integrated IAPT' services co-located in and integrated with physical health services, focused on people with anxiety/depression in the context of Long Term Conditions (LTCs) and/or Medically Unexplained Symptoms (MUS). These will be delivered in primary care and outpatient settings with savings expected in secondary care and primary care.

This pilot exercise is linked to the existing IAPT data set standard through the collection of LTC and/or MUS data from participating IAPT providers and services. The data collected will be used to assess the impact of the Integrated IAPT Early Implementers Programme on health outcomes and use of primary and secondary healthcare services. Currently, 22 IAPT providers are being supported as Integrated IAPT Early Implementers in 2016/17 and 2017/18. More details at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/mentalhealth/adults/iapt/mus/sites/.

IAPT LTC/MUS Pilot Technical Output Specification (DRAFT)

The Technical Output Specification for IAPT LTC/MUS Pilot contains all of the technical information required to support the pilot data collection. The Technical Output Specification also includes additional information relating to the validations carried out by the Bureau Service Portal and any derived data items. Please note that the technical specifications are subject to minor change once the data collection commences by March 2017.

Please see the 'IAPT Intermediate Databases' section for details of the IDB to be used for submission and the IDB submission guidance document.

Previous versions of the IAPT Data Set

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) v1.0

Amd 29/2011 was approved and published by the ISB in October 2011 for collection from April 2012. The collection of this version of the data set has since ceased with the implementation of v1.5 of the data set (see above).

The formal Information Standard for this release can be found on the archived ISB website.

Documents relating to this release can be found below for reference only and are no longer maintained:

NHS Digital take the importance of information governance very seriously. Controls and procedures are in place to make sure NHS Digital demonstrate the highest standard of stewardship and governance of the information handled, including the IAPT Data Set.

NHS Digital makes sure individual patients cannot be identified by creating a pseudonymised patient identifier which is used in national aggregate reporting.

All data collected by NHS Digital is kept secure whilst it is being submitted. The Bureau Service Web Portal which is used to submit the data has secure 'https' technology to encrypt data transmitted across the HSCN network. The portal has successfully passed extensive testing designed to identify any security issues.

The data collected helps the health and care system to understand how services operate, the treatments they provide and the outcomes they achieve, and to improve the way they are delivered.

More details on how NHS Digital looks after information can be found at:

Keeping patient data safe

Codes of practice handling information

IAPT GDPR Register

Providers and commissioner of adult specialist mental health services can retrieve processed IAPT extracts covering their own services by logging into the mental health Bureau Service Portal using their Open Exeter account.

Monthly IAPT reports and Publications

All monthly Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Data Quality and Summary Statistics Reports are published on the NHS Digital's IAPT webpages. The latest published reports can be found at Routine IAPT Reporting.

• NHS England Adult IAPT Programme
• The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Manual
• Keep up to date with the latest mental health news and service updates