Psychological therapies waiting times
Quarter ending September 2024

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides an update on how long people of all ages waited to start treatment with Psychological Therapies (PT) in NHSScotland for the quarter ending September 2024.

Main points

For the quarter ending September 2024:

• 80.0% of people of all ages started their treatment within 18 weeks of referral, compared to 80.2% of people for the previous quarter, and 79.4% of people for the quarter ending September 2023. The Scottish Government standard states that 90% of people should start their treatment within 18 weeks of referral to PT.

• 50% of people of all ages starting PT treatment started within 3 weeks of referral, compared to 4 weeks for the quarter ending June 2024 and 3 weeks for quarter ending September 2023.

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 September 2020 to quarter ending September 2024

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Percentage of patients of all ages who started treatment in PT within 18 weeks of referral, by quarter for September 2020 - September 2024, NHSScotland

• 18,211 people of all ages started PT treatment in an NHS board in the quarter ending September 2024. This is a decrease of 6.0% (1,158) from the previous quarter, and of 0.5% (90) from the quarter ending September 2023.
• 1,383 people aged 65+ years started treatment with psychological therapies in this quarter. 74.0% started their treatment within 18 weeks of referral, an increase from 73.2% in the previous quarter and a decrease from 83.3% for the quarter ending September 2023.
• A total of 28,854 people of all ages were referred for psychological therapies (and in some cases further adult mental health services) in Scotland in this quarter (see the Data Quality Document below). This is a decrease of 3.8% (1,128) from 29,982 people referred in the previous quarter and a 31.6% (13,327) decrease from 42,181 referrals in the same quarter ending September 2023. Please note that the decrease in referrals is mostly due to a methodology change in reporting referrals at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Background

Waiting times information for PT is still being developed. Health boards are working with PHS and the Scottish Government to improve the consistency and completeness of the information.

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 standard applies specifically to psychological therapies for treatment of a mental illness or disorder.

Please note from November 2023, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde report in accordance with PHS updated Psychological therapies and interventions waiting times standard and definitions released in September 2023. This update has resulted in a reduction of the number of PT referrals being reported. NHS GG&C are unable to revise historic data for previous overcounting. More detail about this change can found in the Data Quality Document for more information.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 4 March 2024.