Talking Therapies

Your local Talking Therapies services explained 

One in four people will experience depression or anxiety at some point of their lives. Help is available for people whose daily lives are affected.

Talking Therapies services are psychological therapy services tailored to people’s needs and include talking therapies, group approaches, couples therapy and self-help support for people who experience anxiety and depression.

Will I have to pay for Talking Therapies? 

No. Talking Therapies services are free for people to access. NHS Derby and Derbyshire provides the funding for people to access this support.

How do I choose an Talking Therapies provider that’s right for me? 

There are currently four Talking Therapies providers in Derbyshire accepting new referrals. People who are registered with a Derbyshire GP practice can choose from any of these services.

Referrals will be accepted from people aged over 18 years old, although people aged between 16 and 18 will be accepted if they are assessed as benefiting from the service.

All providers offer the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended therapies and approaches for common mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.

You might choose the provider closest to your home, workplace or family. Alternatively, you may choose the service with the shortest waiting times, the widest choice of types of treatment or the highest recovery or reliable improvement scores.

What are recovery and reliable improvement scores? 

All patients who access the service are asked to complete at least two brief questionnaires at every session. The results of the questionnaires not only let you know if you are improving but also help rate the quality of services patients are receiving.

The target is that at least 50%of people using the service achieve full recovery according to the results of the questionnaires. We call these the “recovery scores”. If the recovery score is 50% or over then this means that more than half of the patients they see fully recover so a high percentage score is very good.

Another way of rating the quality of the service is the reliable improvement score which is the percentage of people who experience a significant improvement in their symptoms.  The target for reliable improvement is 65%. If the reliable improvement rate is 65% or over then it means that more than 65% of patients experience a significant improvement in their symptoms.

How long will I have to wait? 

Waiting times vary. This can be for a number of reasons including waiting longer…

• …for the different types of therapy that the services offer
• …if you want to be seen on a particular day or time
• …if there is a particular location where you wish to be seen.

The target is that all patients should be seen for a first appointment –‘an assessment appointment’ – within 6 weeks of the provider receiving your referral. This is counted from the day you contacted the service or the day the service received the GP referral.

The assessment appointment is where the therapist decides with you if you need to be seen for more sessions – called treatment sessions.

In some services you may need to wait again for a number of weeks until an appointment becomes available for treatment to take place. In others there is only a minimal waiting time between the initial assessment session and when treatment starts. They will also be able to estimate the waiting time between your first and second appointment. 

Waiting times

Everyturn

Referral to assessment: 37 days.

Referral to treatment (various): 113 days.

Talking Mental Health Derbyshire

Referral to assessment: 7 days.

Referral to treatment (various): 144 days.

Trent PTS

Referral to assessment: 32 days.

Referral to treatment (various): 32 days.

Vita Minds

Referral to assessment: 28 days.

Referral to treatment (various): 98 days.

Please note that waiting time data is from August 2024,  last updated: November 2024

How do I access a local Talking Therapies service? 

There are two ways to be referred:

• Self-referral: where you access the service directly – usually by telephone, referral pack (with information about the service which may have been given to you by your GP) or online
• GP referral: where your GP refers you to the service following a consultation

If the referral is not accepted, you and your GP will be informed, or you may be referred to an alternative, more appropriate service.

If your referral is accepted, the provider will contact you to arrange an initial assessment.

Where can I get more urgent help?

The Derbyshire Mental Health Helpline and Support Service is a freephone service available to everyone in Derbyshire. The helpline – 0800 028 0077 – is for people of all ages and is available 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.

This service is delivered by Derbyshire Healthcare Foundation Trust in partnership with P3, a local voluntary organisation. The helpline team will provide support and listening, and you will be directed to the most appropriate specialist support if needed. 

Talking Therapies – Statement published 30 October 2024

NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board is the statutory commissioner of NHS services for the local population. Part of this role includes ensuring there are services provided under an NHS contract to meet local health needs. This includes services which cater for everyone’s physical and mental health requirements.

Under existing contracting rules and legislation, most NHS contracts can only be offered for a time limited period, with the possibility of short extensions where the services are meeting contractual requirements. The contract for Talking Therapies – where local people can gain access to counselling and support services where they are suffering from some types of mental ill-health – has been in operation since 2008. The contract was issued under an ‘any qualified provider’ format, which means providers who meet strict requirements following a tendering process are able to offer certain types of treatment, from a range of locations across Derby and Derbyshire. It is then for the patient to decide which service they feel will best meet their needs, and factors involved in making the decisions about which service to choose might include current waiting times and the geographical location of the service.

The current contract for Talking Therapies will end in June 2025. This service has operated under a national NHS framework and there are currently four providers of the service. There is nothing within the tender rules that prevents a non-NHS body submitting a bid. This is the case for many services, including pharmacy, audiology, optometry, musculo-skeletal care and others. The Talking Therapy service is already provided by a mixture of statutory NHS organisations and non-NHS providers. Current Talking Therapy services in Derby and Derbyshire are:

• Everyturn
• Talking Mental Health Derbyshire
• Trent PTS
• Vita Minds

All four providers have received extensions to their existing contract terms, but further extensions are not possible under current contracting rules.  This means NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB is legally obliged to put the contract out for tender once again, and we are now in the middle of that process. The ICB does not have control over which organisations may wish to bid for contracts, and decisions will be made by individual provider organisations about whether they wish to bid.

The tender process is now underway and the ICB is unable to discuss which provider organisations have put forward bids as the process is commercially confidential. Once the tendering process is complete, a formal announcement will be made of the successful bidder(s). Any organisations successful through the tender process will be providing care under-an NHS contract. This will remain an NHS-funded service which will be free to patients at the point of care; patients will not need to pay for the service, and this is no change from the existing arrangements.

In the meantime, Talking Therapy services continue to be provided by the four organisations currently under contract, and this will be the case until 30 June 2025. On 1^st July 2025, organisations who have been successful with their bids will begin to provide the Talking Therapy services. It is possible that the providers remain the same and that there is no change. It is also possible that providers of the service do change. We will work with existing and any new providers to ensure that there is a smooth transition of care for our patients. The service will continue to operate under the national NHS framework for Talking Therapies.

The key message for patients is that they should continue to access Talking Therapy services in the same way, and further information will follow in the coming months about the outcome of the tender process and whether there will be any change to providers. Should any current or prospective patients have any queries about the Talking Therapies service, they can contact the ICB via ddicb.enquiries@nhs.net.

If you or your loved one are experiencing distress or anxiety, or feeling that you cannot cope, call 0800 028 0077 for support over the phone. The Derbyshire Mental Health Helpline and Support Service is a freephone service available to everyone living in Derbyshire – young people and adults. It is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The SignVideo app also allows deaf or hard of hearing people to make BSL interpreted videos calls via their electronic device.