Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting time is for mental health talking therapies in (a) England, (b) the North West, (c) East Lancashire and (d) Hyndburn constituency.

The average national waiting time for Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme therapies for the last quarter of 2014/15 (quarter two) was 4.8 weeks. The quarter two data for the North of England region show that the average waiting time is 5.3 weeks. The average waiting time for the East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group is 6.3 weeks. Data are not collected by constituency.

Over £400 million is being invested over the spending review period to make a choice of psychological therapies available for those who need them in all parts of England.

The Department’s 2014-15 Mandate to NHS England makes clear that ‘everyone who needs it should have timely access to evidence based services’. The Mandate sets a clear objective for NHS England to deliver the key objectives of the IAPT programme – providing access to therapies to 15% of those eligible (around 900,000 people) per year by 2015, with a recovery rate of 50%.

We have put in place the first waiting times standards in mental health, a significant milestone on the road to parity.

The new five-year plan for mental health, Achieving Better Access to Mental Health Services by 2020, sets out our ambition and the immediate actions we will take this year and next to achieve better access and waiting times in mental health services.

We have identified £40 million additional spending to kick start change in the current year. We have freed up a further £80 million from existing budgets for 2015/16. This will, for the first time ever, enable the setting of access and waiting time standards in mental health services. This will include treatment within six weeks for 75% of people referred to the IAPT programme, with 95% of people being treated within 18 weeks.

Starting this year, the Department and NHS England will work together with mental health system partners to develop detailed proposals for the introduction of further access and waiting time standards from 2016 onwards.