The audit will engage with healthcare professionals in a systematic evaluation of their clinical practice against standards for best practice. Local services will be able to benchmark their performance and identify where they are performing well and where there is potential to improve the quality of treatment and care they provide. Wide participation in the audit is encouraged to create an overview of the quality of care being provided nationally.
The results/findings will be reported at individual service level and at a national level, enabling services to benchmark themselves against national performance. The audit will help to promote best practice, as well as highlight areas for improvement.
Criteria for participation
The audit is open to all NHS-funded services and therapists providing psychological therapies for people with anxiety and depression in England and Wales. It includes adults over the age of 18 who are receiving psychological therapy services in the community. The audit aims to work with both Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) and non-IAPT sites.
Registering
Registration forms can be accessed on the Royal College of Psychiatrists website or by contacting the project team directly (napt@cru.rcpsych.ac.uk). Registration is required by early October.
The project is part of the NHS National Clinical Audit programme and Trusts are required by the Department of Health to report their participation in the audit in their Quality Account.
The National Audit of Psychological Therapies (NAPT) is funded by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and is an initiative of the College Centre for Quality Improvement (CCQI).