QualityWatch: Analysis of success and attrition rates for NHS Talking Therapies

Nuffield Trust researcher Stuti Bagri has delved into the patient pathways seen within the NHS's flagship psychotherapy service NHS Talking Therapies (formally known as Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) - which offers interventions ranging from cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness through to newer treatments like Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing.

Stuti's analysis - conducted for the joint Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation research programme QualityWatch - shows high patient drop-out rates. Figures from April 2023 to March 2024 show over the course of that year, 20% of referrals were deemed “unsuitable” or mutually stopped early and 23% of patients left their treatment incomplete, meanwhile 16% of referrals were not assessed at all.    

In that period, 37% of patients finished a Talking Therapies treatment course, with completion rates wavering around that rate over the past decade.  

Of the 1.8 million people who sought help from NHS Talking Therapies in 2023-24, only 17% finished a course of treatment and “reliably recovered”.

Stuti suggests more could be done to tailor treatments and urges better data collection and analyses around patients who drop out, to ensure ongoing investment in the service is not wasted.   
 
Read the analysis here