Psychological therapies waiting times
Quarter ending June 2026

About this release

NHS Golden Jubilee data are published for the first time in this release and are included throughout the 15-month period presented. As a result Scotland totals are not directly comparable with those published in earlier releases which did not include NHS Golden Jubilee data.

This quarterly release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides an update on how long people of all ages waited to start a Psychological Therapies (PT) treatment in NHS Scotland for the quarter ending June 2026.

This publication presents Official statistics derived from the aggregate national data collection on PT waiting times, which is the currently most reliable source of PT waiting times data. These data should not be compared to the developing PT data presented in the statistics in development patient level Child, Adolescent, and Psychological Therapies National Dataset (CAPTND), due to the ongoing quality and completeness issues with CAPTND.

Unless otherwise stated, this publication presents adjusted waiting times data from April 2025 to June 2026. See the Data Quality Document for more information on adjustments and how periods of patient unavailability are considered.

Main points

In the quarter ending June 2026:

• 80.7% of people started treatment within 18 weeks of referral, which is an increase from 78.7% in the previous quarter, and from 78.5% for the quarter ending June 2025. The Scottish Government standard states that 90% of people should start their treatment within 18 weeks of referral to PT. The chart below illustrates performance in relation to this target over the past 4 years.
• 19,389 people started a PT treatment. This is an increase of 3.9% (728) from the 18,661 starting treatment in the previous quarter, but a decrease of 0.1% (24) from 19,413 patients who started treatment in the quarter ending June 2025.
• Half of those starting treatment started within 5 weeks of referral. This compares with 4 weeks in the previous quarter and also 4 weeks in the quarter ending June 2025.
• Over the 5 quarters reported in this publication (Mar 25-Jun 26), the proportion of patients aged 65+ seen within the 0–18-week target has been less than for those in the general PT cohort (all ages, including 65+). Of the 1,429 people aged 65+ who started treatment in this quarter, 74.0% were seen within 18 weeks of referral. This is a slight increase from 73.9% of 1,447 patients seen within 18 weeks in the previous quarter and also an increase from 67.9% of 1,476 seen in the quarter ending June 2025. 
• A total of 30,126 people (of all ages) were referred for PT in the quarter ending June 2026 (see the Data Quality Document for individual board commentaries). This is a decrease of 1.3% (400) from the 30,526 referrals in the previous quarter but an increase of 1.9% (549) from 29,577 referrals in the same quarter ending June 2025.

Chart 1. it shows a trend line for the percentage of patients who started treatment in psychological therapy within 18 weeks of referral in Scotland. The time period is in quarters and covers from quarter ending June 2022 to quarter ending June 2026

Close

Percentage of patients of all ages who started treatment in PT within 18 weeks of referral, by quarter from June 2022 to June 2026, NHS Scotland

Background

PT 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 Scottish Government Standard applies specifically to a PT treatment for a mental illness or disorder provided across health boards in NHS Scotland.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 1 December 2026.