We haven’t been able to produce an analysis of the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB area. There is an error in the collection the data for Shropshire that has produced the anomoly of more people recorded as finishing a course of treatment than the number of people who entered treatment.
We contacted NHS Digital via Freedom of Information request. Their reply is here:
“Thank you for your Freedom of Information (FOI) request, received on 23/10/2025.
Your request was:
‘On page 5 of the Talking Therapies annual report for 2023 – 24
(https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-talking-therapies-for-anxiety-and-depression-annual-reports/2023-24) the number of referrals accessing therapy in the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB is recorded at 5,070 while the number who finished a course of treatment is 6,630.
This is the only occasion I have come across this apparent anomaly.
Could you tell me if this is a mistake (though it is repeated in other tabulations of the ICB’s referrals) or is it a particular feature of the stats for that ICB for that year.’
Decision
NHS England holds this information.
It appears that the issue is down to the DQ of provider RRE (Midlands Partnership) prior to June ‘23.
There’s a DQ note on the publication that says this provider were recording initial assessments as treatments. This meant that very few referrals were recorded as ‘EndedNotSeen’ and more referrals were flagged as completing treatment than should have been the case.
After they corrected the issue, there would have been a lag where less referrals were recorded as accessing services, but the numbers recorded as finishing a course of treatment would still have been high.
We should also like to clarify that referrals accessing treatment and referrals finishing a course of treatment are two separate cohorts. The ‘accessing treatment’ cohort are referrals that had their first treatment appointment in 2023-24, whereas the ‘finishing course of treatment’ cohort are referrals that were discharged in 2023-24 and does not necessarily mean they first accessed treatment in 2023-24.
Yours sincerely,
Freedom of Information
NHS England”
