Child, adolescent, and psychological therapies national dataset (CAPTND)
Psychological Therapies Report

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides a bi-annual update on information relating to Psychological Therapies (PT) services from the Child, Adolescent, and Psychological Therapies National Dataset (CAPTND) in NHSScotland, for the quarter ending June 2025.

Improving data quality in CAPTND is an ongoing process, meaning data from previous quarters may not be directly comparable to the current reporting period. Changes in data over the past five quarters could be reflective of improved data quality of submissions, rather than necessarily representing an actual increase in service demand.

Main points

CAPTND is a dataset in development that collates information for mental health services at patient-level and records each individual’s journey through the service from referral to discharge. CAPTND data are still under development therefore any inferences or conclusions from this analysis must be treated with caution, and should not be compared to the official aggregate PT collection and waiting times.

For PT data recorded in CAPTND, in the quarter ending June 2025:

• 25,347 people of all ages were referred. This was an increase of 55 (0.2%) compared with the 25,292 referrals in the previous quarter, and an increase of 360 (1.4%) compared with the 24,987 referrals in the same quarter ending June 2024.
• Of the 25,347 referrals received, 64.1% were for females and 35.9% for males. These proportions have remained fairly static in the 15 months of reporting shown in this publication.
• The referral acceptance rate was 87.8%; lower than the acceptance rate of 89.5% in the previous quarter, and 89.3% accepted in the same quarter ending June 2024.
• 119,084 PT appointments were allocated and recorded in CAPTND across NHSScotland. This is an increase of 2.5% of total appointments since the previous quarter, and an increase of 17.6% since the same quarter ending June 2024. Note this may be reflective of improved data quality of submissions, rather than an actual increase in service demand.
• Of the 119,084 appointments recorded across NHSScotland, 11,456 had an attendance status of ‘Did Not Attend (DNA)’ resulting in a total DNA rate of 9.6% for all appointments.

Background

PHS is continuing to develop CAPTND and accompanying narratives. There are plans underway to review reporting methods and include additional measures such as waiting times from CAPTND when the data quality of further measures is deemed sufficient. NHS health boards are working with PHS and the Scottish Government to improve the consistency and completeness of the information.

Psychological therapies refer to a range of interventions, based on psychological concepts and theory, which are designed to help people understand and make changes to their thinking, behaviour and relationships in order to relieve distress and to improve functioning. The standard applies specifically to psychological therapies for treatment of a mental illness or disorder.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 3 March 2026.