Improving Access to Psychological Therapies is an NHS programme rolling out services across England offering interventions approved by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) for treating people with depression and anxiety disorders.

This website supports the trainees, trainers and service teams involved in the programme with guidance documents, learning resources and examples of materials that can be adapted by IAPT services.

The second phase of the programme was marked by the publication of ‘Talking Therapies: a four year plan of action’ in February 2011. The plan was published with ‘No health without mental health, a cross-government strategy’, and aims to expand the scope of the programme to children and young people, and people with long-term physical conditions, medically unexplained symptoms or severe mental illness.

Local services routinely advertise training posts and any other vacancies on the NHS Jobs website. Recruitment usually happens in the summer and training years usually begin in October. More detailed information may be available on NHS Jobs or from the Mental Health commissioning lead at your local Primary Care Trust or GP Commissioning Consortium.