Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what percentage of patients who attempt to access talking therapies are offered the full choice of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved treatments.

National data is not available on the percentage of patients accessing talking therapies who are offered a choice of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approved psychological therapies.

NICE has recommended a range of psychological therapeutic interventions in its clinical guidelines, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Interpersonal therapy, brief dynamic interpersonal therapy, couple therapy for depression and counselling for depression.

Not all psychological therapeutic interventions therapies are appropriate for all patients. The decision on the most appropriate therapy for each patient should be made between a patient and their clinician.

In 2012, the Department agreed significant additional investment of £22 million in Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) over three years up to 2015. The additional funding will be used to extend the range and availability of evidence-based therapies and is in addition to the investment made in 2010 of £400 million in the IAPT programme up to 2015.