Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to record how many veterans are seen by NHS commissioned services for mental health support, including (a) time to enter treatment and (b) the length of treatment offered on delivery.

Veterans may be seen in a variety of National Health Service mental health services including the bespoke veteran mental health services that Op COURAGE provides. The average time to be seen for assessment by the Transition Intervention and Liaison service, within Op COURAGE was nine days in January 2022. The length of treatment offered by the Op COURAGE service is dependent on an individual’s clinical need.

Veterans can also access Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services which record the number of ex-service members seen via NHS commissioned services for mental health support. In 2021, there were 15,782 ex-service members accessing IAPT treatment. In Quarter 3 of 2021/22, 91.4% had a first treatment appointment within six weeks and 98.5% with 18 weeks. The mean number of sessions received was 7.9. These waiting times and the number of treatment sessions are similar to all to IAPT patients.