Child, adolescent, and psychological therapies national dataset (CAPTND)
Psychological Therapies Report
Official statistics
- Published
- 04 March 2025
- Type
- Statistical report
- Author
- Public Health Scotland
About this release
This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides an update on information relating to activity in Psychological Therapies (PT) services from the Child, Adolescent, and Psychological Therapies National Dataset (CAPTND) in NHSScotland, for the quarter ending December 2024.
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. 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.
Recorded appointment figures for quarter ending Dec-24 are an underestimate of true appointment activity due to a change in the patient management system used at NHS Dumfries and Galloway.
Main points
For PT in the quarter ending December 2024:
- There were a total of 24,510 people of all ages referred to PT (and in some cases further adult mental health services) recorded in CAPTND. This was a decrease of 132 (0.5%) compared with the 24,642 referrals in the previous quarter, and an increase of 1,208 (5.2%) compared with the 23,302 referrals in the same quarter ending December 2023.
- PT services across NHSScotland received 15,788 (64.4%) referrals for females and 8,704 (35.5%) for males.
- Of the 24,510 referrals to PT, 21,763 (88.8%) were accepted, and deemed suitable for treatment within the service.
- There were a total of 98,397 PT appointments recorded in CAPTND across NHS Scotland. This is a decrease of 4,615 (4.5%) recorded appointments since the previous quarter, and an increase of 12,721 (14.8%) recorded appointments since the same quarter in the previous year.
- Of the total PT appointments recorded across NHSScotland, 9,748 had an attendance status of ‘Did Not Attend (DNA)’ resulting in a total DNA rate of 9.9% for all appointments.
Background
Waiting times information for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and psychological therapies using CAPTND is still being developed. 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 2 September 2025.
General enquiries
If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please contact Charlie Smith at phs.captnd@phs.scot.
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Older versions of this publication
Versions of this publication released before 16 March 2020 may be found on the Data and Intelligence, Health Protection Scotland or Improving Health websites.