Use of client information by the IAPT service.
Dover Counselling Centre provides services as part of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme in England.
As part of this contract, we must assess our effectiveness and continually improve client care, which means we need to collect data about our clients, their treatments and the outcomes and analyse it.
1. What information is collected by an IAPT service?
DCC collects information about your and the care you receive, including the assessments, and your answers to questionnaires. This enables your progress to be monitored and future care planned. This information may be shared with other health professionals involved in your care, so that you get the best possible care. If you would like to see the information collected about you or find our more about how the information is stored and used locally please speak to your therapist.
2. What information is collected nationally?
Some of this information collected is reported nationally to give a picture of service delivered across the country, to check that quality standards are similar everywhere. No information that could reveal a client’s identity is used in national reports. These reported only show summary numbers of, for instance, clients receiving different types of treatments and it is impossible to identify any person see by any IAPT service from them. Security of client information is very important in IAPT services.
3. How is the information used nationally?
The information collected is used to check that:
- Services are available to those who need them
- An appropriate range of NICE compliant treatments is provided
- Patients achieve positive outcomes from treatment
National reports offer huge service delivery benefits by checking, for example, numbers of referrals received, time taken to access services, the type of treatments used and the outcomes of those treatments. Also, under the Equality Act 2010, the NHS must monitor personal characteristics and check everyone has equal access to services and is not discriminated against in any way, so DCC has to report on these.
4. How we keep your information safe?
The IAPT service stores all information safely and securely and sends national reporting information safely to a secure central data storage area. All data collected is subject to strict rules of confidentiality.
5. Do you need to use my information?
IAPT national reports offer the most benefit when they use the information from as many clients as possible, because this creates the most accurate picture of services. If, however, you do not want your information included in national analyses, please tell your therapist and they will make sure your information is not used.