ABSTRACT
The psychotherapies, by their very nature, evolve and change. The National Health Service, too, is evolving and changing, as are the professions within it. Psychotherapeutic services within the NHS are therefore hard to capture as a given static picture at any one moment. Looking at things positively, there have been considerable improvements in the quality of provision of the psychotherapies in the NHS over recent years, and these continue: services aim to offer a broader range of psychotherapies and so be responsive and flexible to individual needs; collaboration between providers of the psychotherapies is improving, so more efficient and effective use can be made of all resources in the field; and standards for training and accreditation are being made more explicit, which is leading to improved standards of care. On the more negative side, service provision is still inadequate and patchy; even where it exists, it is hard to find one’s way to the service one may need and there is room for further improvement in collaboration between those providing the services.
