Layard report

The Layard report is a report produced in 2006 by the Mental Health Group of the Centre for Economic Performance of the London School of Economics. The Chairman of the committee was Richard Layard.

They recommended that psychological therapy should be made widely available to people in Britain on the basis of an economic analysis which they felt showed that expenditure on services would be more than paid for by the money saved on reduced benefits now paid out to people off work with common psychological disorders such as mild to moderateanxiety, depression, phobias and PTSD etc. By reducing absenteeism and helping people to return to work more quickly they felt substantial savings could be made, justifying the employment of many more therapies.

The report has been widely influential and led to a number of initiatives by the UK government, including the Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme which has put £300 million into targeted services.