USE OF INFORMATION

Information about you and your treatment will be confidentially and securely stored on an NHS approved system similar to the one used by your GP.

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme
Our service was created as part of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme in England. We want to offer the best possible service to patients. To do this, we have to assess our effectiveness and continually improve patient care, which means we need to collect data about our patients, their treatments and the outcomes and analyse it. This page describes how the information and data helps improve patient care.

What information is collected by an IAPT service?
IAPT services collect information about you and the care you receive, including the assessments, results of tests 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 help and support. If you would like to see the information collected about you or find out more about how the information is stored and used by Outlook South West please speak with your therapist.

What information is collected nationally?
Some of this collected information is reported nationally to give a picture of services delivered across the country, to check that quality standards are similar everywhere. No information that could reveal a patient’s identity is used in national reports. These reports only show summary figures, like the numbers of patients receiving different types of treatments for example. It is impossible to identify any person seen by any IAPT service. Security of patient information is very important in IAPT services.

How is the information used nationally?
The information collected is used to check that:

         * Services are available to those who need them

         * Patients achieve positive outcomes from treatment

         * An appropriate range of treatments are provided

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 has to monitor personal characteristics and check everyone has equal access to services and is not discriminated against in any way.

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 the strict rules of confidentiality, laid down by Acts of Parliament, including the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Health and Social Care Act 2001 and the NHS Care Record Guarantee.

Do we need to use your information?
IAPT national reports offer the most benefit when they use information from as many patients 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 the person treating you and they will make sure your information is not used. This will not affect your treatment in any way.