Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to review the operation of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies service; and what target he has set for the number of people who will get access to therapy under that service by April 2016.

Achieving Better Access to Mental Health Services by 2020, published in October 2014, set out the ambition that by 2020 the National Health Service would provide a comprehensive set of access and waiting time standards.

This was accompanied by a £120 million investment – an investment of £40 million new money in 2014/15 to lay the groundwork for introducing the standards, and £80 million in 2015/16 that will be realised out of existing NHS England budgets. This will enable the setting of the following access and waiting time standards in mental health services:

- Treatment within six weeks for 75% of people referred to the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme, with 95% of people being treated within 18 weeks;

- Treatment within two weeks for more than 50% of people experiencing a first episode of psychosis; and

- £30 million targeted investment will help people in crisis to access effective support in accident and emergency.

Since 2008, over 3 million people have entered IAPT treatment, with over half of them having completed treatment. Over 1 million patients have reached recovery.

By end March 2015, the aim is for IAPT services to be available to at least 15% of people who could benefit. Many local areas are achieving more than this. The 15% target was set in order to ensure a credible alternative to medication was available everywhere. We will know shortly if this target has been met and will then plan about how to progress.