Psychological therapies waiting times
Quarter ending March 2026

About this release

This quarterly release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides an update on how long people of all ages waited to start a Psychological Therapies (PT) treatment in NHS Scotland for the quarter ending March 2026.

This publication presents Official statistics derived from the aggregate national data collection on PT waiting times, which is the currently most reliable source of PT waiting times data. These data should not be compared to the developing PT data presented in the statistics in development patient level Child, Adolescent, and Psychological Therapies National Dataset (CAPTND), due to the ongoing quality and completeness issues with CAPTND.

Unless otherwise stated, this publication presents adjusted waiting times data from January 2025 to March 2026. See the Data Quality Document for more information on adjustments and how periods of patient unavailability are considered.

Main points

In the quarter ending March 2026:

• 79.4% of people started treatment within 18 weeks of referral, which is a decrease from 82.1% in the previous quarter, and an increase from 78.6% for the quarter ending March 2025. The Scottish Government standard states that 90% of people should start their treatment within 18 weeks of referral to PT. The chart below illustrates performance in relation to this target over the past 4 years.
• 19,285 people started PT treatment. This is an increase of 4.3% (796) from the 18,489 starting treatment in the previous quarter, and also an increase of 0.8% (149) from 19,136 patients who started treatment in the quarter ending March 2025.
• Half of those starting treatment started within 3 weeks of referral. This compares with 2 weeks in the previous quarter and 3 weeks in the quarter ending March 2025.
• Over the 5 quarters (Jan 25-Mar 26) reported in this publication, the proportion of patients aged 65+ seen within the 0–18-week target has been less than for those in the general PT cohort (all ages, including 65+). Of the 1,440 people aged 65+ who started treatment in this quarter, 73.8% were seen within 18 weeks of referral. This is a decrease from 77.0% of 1,497 patients seen within 18 weeks in the previous quarter, but an increase from 71.8% of 1,499 seen in the quarter ending March 2025. 
• A total of 31,179 people (of all ages) were referred for PT in the quarter ending March 2026 (see the Data Quality Document for individual board commentaries). This is an increase of 9.3% (2,652) from the 28,527 referrals in the previous quarter and also an increase of 2.8% (860) from 30,319 referrals in the same quarter ending March 2025.

Chart 1. it shows a trend line for the percentage of patients who started treatment in psychological therapy within 18 weeks of referral in Scotland. The time period is in quarters and covers from quarter ending March 2022 to quarter ending March 2026

Close

Percentage of patients of all ages who started treatment in PT within 18 weeks of referral, by quarter from March 2022 to March 2026, NHS Scotland

Background

PT refer to a range of interventions, based on psychological concepts and theory, which are designed to help people understand and make changes to their thinking, behaviour and relationships in order to relieve distress and to improve functioning. The Scottish Government Standard applies specifically to a PT treatment for a mental illness or disorder provided across health boards in NHS Scotland.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 1 September 2026.