FOI 2026/1736

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

I am undertaking a public health review of the UK Ministry of Defence looking at early psychological support and access to talking therapy pathways for serving Armed Forces personnel.

I am particularly interested in how NHS Talking Therapies and related psychological support services are accessed by serving military personnel, and how this interacts with wider Defence, NHS and third sector support.

Please provide the following recorded information for your ICB footprint.

For the purposes of this request, “serving military personnel” means currently serving UK Armed Forces personnel, including regular personnel and reservists, where this status is recorded or identifiable in the data you hold.

Please provide information for the following periods where held:

• 2023/24 financial year
• 2024/25 financial year
• 2025/26 financial year

If the current ICB was created through merger or boundary change, please provide the information held for the predecessor ICBs or predecessor footprint where available.

NHS Talking Therapies provision

Please provide:

1. The name of the NHS Talking Therapies service or services commissioned for your ICB population
2. The provider organisation or organisations delivering these services.
3. What services are delivered
4. Whether the service(s) accepts self-referrals.
5. Whether the service accepts referrals from NHS GPs only, or from other routes such as Defence Medical Services GP practices.
6. Any eligibility criteria that apply to serving Armed Forces personnel.

Access by serving Armed Forces personnel

Please confirm whether serving military personnel can access your ICB-commissioned NHS Talking Therapies service if they are:

1. Registered with an NHS GP in your ICB area.
   b. Temporarily posted or resident in your ICB area.
   c. A reservist registered with an NHS GP in your ICB area.
   d. Under Defence Medical Services primary care rather than NHS primary care.

If any of these groups are excluded, redirected or subject to a different access route, please provide the recorded policy, guidance or pathway document that explains this.

Activity data

For each requested year, please provide the following information where held:

1. Total number of referrals to NHS Talking Therapies by service(s) offered if multiple are offered.
   b. Number of referrals where the person was identified as serving Armed Forces personnel.
   c. Number of serving Armed Forces personnel accepted for assessment.
   d. Number of serving Armed Forces personnel entering treatment.
   e. Number of serving Armed Forces personnel completing treatment.
   f. Average or median wait from referral to assessment.
   g. Average or median wait from referral to first treatment appointment.
   h. Recovery, reliable improvement or other outcome measures for serving Armed Forces personnel, where separately recorded.
   i. DNA/non-attendance rates for serving Armed Forces personnel, where separately recorded.

If serving military status is not recorded or cannot be separately identified, please state this clearly.

I am not requesting any patient-identifiable information. Aggregated data is sufficient, and I am content for small numbers to be suppressed where required.

Recording of Armed Forces status

Please confirm:

1. Whether Armed Forces status is routinely recorded in NHS Talking Therapies referrals or assessments.
   b. Whether the categories distinguish between serving personnel, reservists, veterans and family members.
   c. Whether this information is recorded in a structured data field or only in free text.
   d. Whether the ICB has any local guidance on identifying or recording Armed Forces status within mental health or talking therapy services.

Dedicated pathways, protocols or agreements

Please provide copies of, or links to, any recorded:

1. Referral protocols between NHS Talking Therapies and Defence Medical Services.
   b. Referral protocols between NHS Talking Therapies and Departments of Community Mental Health or other Defence mental health services.
   c. Memoranda of understanding, service level agreements or local pathway documents relating to serving Armed Forces personnel and psychological therapies.
   d. Commissioned arrangements with third sector or Armed Forces charities for psychological support, talking therapies, counselling, online support or related mental health provision for serving personnel.

Online, digital and third sector psychological support

Please provide details of any online, digital or third sector psychological support commissioned, funded or formally promoted by the ICB for people with mild to moderate anxiety, depression, stress, adjustment difficulties or related presentations.

For each service, please provide where held:

1. Name of service.
   b. Provider.
   c. Whether it is available to serving Armed Forces personnel.
   d. Whether access is by self-referral, GP referral, NHS Talking Therapies referral or another route.
   e. Annual cost to the ICB, where held.
   f. Annual uptake or usage data, where held.
   g. Whether usage by serving Armed Forces personnel is separately recorded.

Strategy, needs assessment and equality considerations

Please provide copies of, or links to, any current:

1. Needs assessments relating to Armed Forces communities and mental health.
   b. Health inequalities assessments or equality impact assessments relating to NHS Talking Therapies access.
   c. Commissioning strategies or service reviews that discuss Armed Forces personnel, reservists, or Armed Forces families in relation to mental health, psychological therapies or early intervention.

Commissioning and contract information

Please provide:

1. The current contract period for NHS Talking Therapies provision.
   b. The annual contract value for NHS Talking Therapies provision, where not commercially exempt.
   c. The ICB role responsible for commissioning NHS Talking Therapies. A generic team name or generic mailbox is sufficient. I am not requesting personal staff details.

If any part of this request would exceed the appropriate cost limit, please provide the information that can be supplied within the limit and advise how I may refine the remaining elements, in line with the duty to provide advice and assistance under section 16 of the Act.

As I would prefer the information in Excel or CSV format where data tables are provided, I have supplied a blank excel template to support data collation.

**An excel document was sent to us by requester with this FOI request.  If you require a copy of this, please contact NHS GM’s FOI team – nhsgm.foi@nhs.net **

For the purposes of this request, NHS Greater Manchester does not routinely provide or commission NHS Talking Therapies services for currently serving UK Armed Forces personnel, including regular personnel and reservists when they are accessing care through Defence Medical Services.

As such, serving military personnel are not within the commissioned scope of NHS Talking Therapies services, and their status is not consistently recorded or identifiable within NHS Talking Therapies datasets.

Where individuals are identified within services, this is typically in relation to veteran status rather than current service status.

Serving personnel are expected to access mental health support via Defence Medical Services, including military primary care and specialist mental health services.