Dear Paul,

Good afternoon,

I sincerely apologise for the delay in acknowledging your FOI request.

Please be assured the appropriate staff/team are dealing with your request and as soon as I receive a response I will notify you.

If you still wish to pursue an internal review, please let me know.

Kind regards,

Michelle

Michelle Benedetti
Information Governance Facilitator
West London Trust
1 Armstrong Way
Southall
Middlesex

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Dear Mr Atkinson,

Thank you for your FOI requests (Our Ref: 247 & 248).

Please find below the response to your FOI requests to West London Trust.

Please inform me how many drop out referrals have been followed up between
2013 and 2022.

*The Trust will not be disclosing the following information on the grounds
of cost as locating and extracting the information will exceed the cost
limit. You may be aware that under Section 12 of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 a public authority is not obliged to comply with a
request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of
complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.  The
appropriate limit for the NHS is £450 (based on £25 per person per hour to
locate and extract the requested data. This represents the estimated cost
of one person spending more than 18 hours as we have established that
providing this information would require a manual audit of relevant
records to be carried out.

*The Trust cannot provide a detailed breakdown of everyone referred to the
IAPT services between 2013-2022 and how they were followed up and the
outcome. This is because this would require an audit of notes that would
take more than 18 hours.   However, we can provide some information that
we hope will assist with your query about drop-out and follow-up within
the services. 

Given that almost two-thirds of all IAPT referrals each year never begin a
course of treatment or drop out before they finish a course of treatment,
when are they followed up and with what results?

There are standard processes that are followed during the course of a
referral to the Trust IAPT services. Once a referral is received then
multiple attempts will be made to contact the individual e.g. via text,
email, or writing. If our administrative team cannot make contact they
will leave a message or send a text asking them to contact us by a
specific deadline. If that deadline passes without contact they will be
discharged. A follow-up letter will be sent (usually to the patient and
copied in GP) to explain they have been discharged but encourage them to
self-refer in the future if they would like to start treatment at a later
date.

If someone unexpectedly does not attend an appointment for an assessment
then we will contact them and try to reschedule the appointment. If our
administrative team cannot make contact they will leave a message or send
a text asking them to contact us by a specific deadline. If that deadline
passes without contact they will be discharged. A follow-up letter will be
sent (usually to the patient and copied in GP) to explain they have been
discharged but encourage them to self-refer in the future if they would
like to start treatment at a later date.

At the start of treatment, it is standard practice to create a therapy
contract with the patient. This includes details about the therapy that is
starting as well as information about cancellation and DNA policies within
the service. If someone unexpectedly does not attend (DNA) an appointment
during the course of treatment then the therapist has a choice of actions.
There may be a pre-agreed plan for what to do (e.g. a safety plan that
gives permission to contact next of kin or a carer in the event of a DNA)
or the therapist may contact the patient via text, email, or phone to
speak to them. Again, if the therapist is unable to speak to the patient
they will leave a message or write with a deadline to get in touch. If
that deadline passes without contact they will be discharged. A follow-up
letter will be sent (usually to the patient and copied in GP) to explain
they have been discharged but encourage them to self-refer in the future
if they would like to start treatment in the future.

If you are dissatisfied with this response and wish to appeal then please
let me know by writing to:

Information Governance Department

Trust Headquarters

1 Armstrong Way

Southall

UB2 4SD

Or alternatively, you can email: [1][email address]

Any complaints will be dealt with through our Internal Review procedure.
If you are still not satisfied following the Internal Review, you have a
right to appeal to the Information Commissioner using the following
contact details:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545 700

Thank you.

Kind regards,

[2]signature
Information Governance Officer
West London NHS Trust

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Dear Mr Atkinson,

We have now responded to your FOI request (our ref 248).

Are you wishing to still pursue this Internal Review request.

Please let us know by 21/12/2022/

Kind regards,

[1]signature

Information Governance Officer
West London NHS Trust

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