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Publication, Part of

Psychological Therapies: reports on the use of IAPT services, England April 2020 Final including reports on the IAPT pilots

Official statistics, Experimental statistics

Publication Date:
9 Jul 2020
Geographic Coverage:
England
Geographical Granularity:
Care Trusts, Clinical Commissioning Groups, GP practices, Independent Sector Health Care Providers, Mental Health Trusts, NHS Trusts
Date Range:
01 Apr 2020 to 30 Apr 2020

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Delayed Employment Adviser report added.

The report is now available.

21 July 2020 10:00 AM

IAPT Final April 2020 csv, Monthly Time Series Report and Interactive Dashboard updated

The final April 2020 csv, monthly time series report and interactive dashboard have been updated to only report data recorded against current organisations. Activity recorded against former CCGs is now available under the new CCG.

26 October 2020 09:00 AM

IAPT Entering Treatment Rolling Quarter Report Updated

The entering treatment rolling quarter report has been updated to only report data recorded against current organisations. Activity recorded against former CCGs is now available under the new CCG.

20 November 2020 08:48 AM

Page contents

Outcomes

Outcomes in IAPT are measured in terms of three measures:

  • recovery,
  • reliable improvement,
  • and reliable recovery.

Recovery

Recovery in IAPT is measured in terms of ‘caseness’ – a term which means a referral has severe enough symptoms of anxiety or depression to be regarded as a clinical case. A referral has moved to recovery if they were defined as a clinical case at the start of their treatment (‘at caseness’) and not as a clinical case at the end of their treatment, measured by scores from questionnaires tailored to their specific condition.

The Government target is that 50% of eligible referrals to IAPT services should move to recovery.⁵.

46.6% of eligible referrals moved to recovery

Calculating Recovery rates

In April 2020, the calculation to calculate the recovery rate is performed as below:

 

26,586 / ( 60,451 - 3,434  ) * 100 = 46.6%

 

Sub-national recovery rates are published in the Monthly Activity Data File as column ‘RecoveryRate’.

Reliable improvement

A referral has shown reliable improvement if there is a significant improvement in their condition following a course of treatment, measured by the difference between their first and last scores on questionnaires tailored to their specific condition.

65.4% of referrals finishing a course of treatment showed reliable improvement

Calculating improvement rates

In April 2020, the calculation is performed as below:

 

39,548 / 60,451 * 100 = 65.4%

 

Sub-national reliable improvement rates are published in the Monthly Activity Data File as column ‘ImprovementRate’.

Reliable recovery

A referral has reliably recovered if they meet the criteria for both the recovery and reliable improvement measures. That is, they have moved from being a clinical case at the start of treatment to not being a clinical case at the end of treatment, and there has also been a significant improvement in their condition.

44.0% of referrals reliably recovered

Calculating reliable recovery rates

In April 2020, this calculation is performed as follows:

 

25,113 / (60,451 - 3,434) * 100 = 44.0%

 

Sub-national reliable recovery rates are published in the Monthly Activity Data File as column ‘ReliableRecoveryRate’.

The chart below compares recovery, reliable improvement, and reliable recovery rates across a period of twelve months.

Figure 5: Percentage of eligible referrals having recovered, reliably improved, and reliably recovered, May 2019 to April 2020, England
Download the data for this chart Figure 5: Percentage of eligible referrals having recovered, reliably improved, and reliably recovered, May 2019 to April 2020, England

Consistently, a higher proportion show reliable improvement than move to recovery; this is because reliable improvement only looks at the scale of change, and not whether the referral has moved below the clinical caseness threshold.

Reliable recovery, which requires both recovery and reliable improvement, is the most stringent measure and therefore has the lowest rate.

Each quarter, more detailed data are published about activity. The most recent quarterly data, Quarter 4 2019/20 is available.  

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, [Archive Content].  

⁵ See p16-17 of The Mandate: A mandate from the Government to NHS England: April 2015 to March 2016, 

Last edited: 1 December 2021 5:45 pm

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