Psychological therapies waiting times
Quarter ending June 2025

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 June 2025.

This publication presents Official Statistics derived from the aggregate national data collection on PT waiting times, and is to be considered as the most reliable source of PT waiting times data. Due to the ongoing data quality and completeness issues, 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).

Main points

For the quarter ending June 2025:

• 19,228 people started PT treatment. This is an increase of 0.48% (92) from the 19,136 patients starting treatment in the previous quarter, and a decrease of 0.76% (147) from the 19,375 patients in the quarter ending June 2024.
• 78.3% of people started their PT treatment within 18 weeks of referral, compared to 78.6% in the previous quarter, and 80.2% for the quarter ending June 2024. 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.
• 50% of the 19,228 people starting PT treatment started within four weeks of referral, compared to three weeks for the previous quarter. In the period ending June 2024, 50% also began treatment within four weeks of referral.
• Of the 1,456 people aged 65+ who started treatment in this quarter, 67.4% were seen within 18 weeks of referral, a decrease from 71.8% in the previous quarter, and from 73.1% for the quarter ending June 2024. Over the 5 quarters reported in this publication, the proportion of patients aged 65+ seen within the 18 week target has been less than for those in the general PT cohort.
• A total of 29,479 people (of all ages) were referred for PT in this quarter (see the Data Quality Document for individual board commentaries). This is a decrease of 2.8% (840) from 30,319 referrals in the previous quarter and of 0.8% (244) from 29,723 referrals in the same quarter ending June 2024.

Chart showing the percentage of patients of all ages who started treatment in PT within 18 weeks of referral, by quarter for June 2021 to June 2025, NHSScotland

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Percentage of patients of all ages who started treatment in PT within 18 weeks of referral, by quarter for June 2021 - June 2025, NHSScotland

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 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 2 September 2025.