Latest News

16th April 2026 - Recruitment update

There are now 647 participants in the study, which is over half way to the target of 1252. This is a significant milestone, thank you so much to those willing to join the study as participants and to the therapists for efforts recruiting to the study. We have updated the bar chart of total recruits per month (see here), which shows that March was the best month for recruitment so far. We have also included a graph below which shows the total number of participants per site team - bear in mind that not all teams started recruiting at the same time. The target per team is 104 participants.

Here are some recent recruitment highlights:

Central Cheshire have agreed to recruit past their initial site target of 104, which will help us reach the 1252 total more quickly. Other sites may also be asked to recruit beyond 104 participants as they approach their initial target.
All sites have now recruited participants.
Westminster Talking Therapies (Central and North West London) were activated on 16/02/2026, and are off to a good start with recruitment.

For sites that are recruiting a bit more slowly than expected, we have been looking into what options are available, such as whether more PWPs can be enrolled onto the study.

16th March 2026 - All sites set up

Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Talking Therapies (Vita Health Group) were green lit for recruitment on 12/03/2026, meaning that all 14 sites are now active. Recruitment is going well overall, the monthly recruitment graph can be viewed here. Well done to City and Hackney, who are already over half way to their recruitment target of 104 after just 2 months of recruiting.

11th February 2026 - Recruitment update

117 participants were recruited in January - the largest number of recruits in a month so far. This graph shows the number of recruits per month up to January 2026. There are currently 450 participants in the trial - over a third of the way to the overall target of 1252 participants.

Congratulations to North Lincs and Central Cheshire for becoming the first sites to reach the site recruitment target of 104 participants! For those interested, North Lincs got there first, on 02/02/2026.

21st January 2026 - Winter update

Site update

5 more teams have been activated since the last update. In November, we activated South Somerset and Taunton Talking Therapy teams, within Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, as well as Ealing Talking Therapies (West London NHS Trust). Mind Matters (Surrey Talking Therapies, Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS FT) were also activated in December, and City and Hackney (Homerton Healthcare NHS FT) were activated on 19/01/2026.

Our Participating Teams page provides an overview of sites on the study. South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS FT withdrew, with their teams Gateshead and South Tyneside. This brings us to 12 active teams, which is the minimum target for the study. We aim to activate two more teams in the next couple of weeks: Nottingham and Nottinghamshire (Vita Health Group), and Westminster (Central and North West London NHS FT).

Recruitment update

In terms of recruitment of participants at sites, here are some of the highlights:

Central Cheshire and North Lincs have 94 and 99 participants respectively, approaching their target of 104.
West Lancs are at 52 participants, exactly half way to their target.
Blackburn with Darwen are now recruiting well, with 24 participants, alongside North Yorkshire with 33 participants.
York and Selby are off to a fantastic start - one therapist recruited 19 participants in 1 month.
All active sites have recruited at least one participant.
There are now a total of 348 participants in the trial!

Message to participants

Thank you again to those of you who have joined the trial and have completed your baseline questionnaire. Participants who were recruited in July and August will now be receiving their 6 month questionnaires, so please keep an eye out for those. As a reminder, we will be contacting you 6 months, 12 months and 18 months after your Talking Therapies assessment. Your answers are vital to our understanding how the StratCare app works for patients in Talking Therapies, so thank you again for your participation.

Overall, we are very pleased with the progress made in the last 2 months. Thank you to the Research and Development and clinical teams for persevering with the training and setup process.

13th November 2025 - More sites and participants

North Lincs and Central Cheshire, the two highest recruiting teams, are now neck and neck with 69 participants each. West Lancs are also recruiting well, having recruited 21 participants in their first 5 weeks. Thank you again to all of the PWPs at these sites for your commitment to the study, your recruitment numbers are fantastic and this is crucial for the study at this time. The total number of participants is 167.

There is more good news - two more teams were activated on 05/11/2025. These are York and Selby and North Yorkshire, within the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS FT. There are also a few more teams close to activation, which we look forward to announcing.

21st October 2025 - Over 100 participants

Recruitment is going well at sites, and there are now 105 participants in the trial. North Lincs Talking Therapies have had a very successful start to recruitment, enrolling 39 participants in the first 6 weeks. 3 more teams started recruitment on 02/10/2025 - Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn and Rossendale, and West Lancashire (Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS FT). The study team are still recruiting sites, and there are a couple of sites close to activation. Thank you everyone for your work and involvement in the trial, we will keep you updated.

9th September 2025 - New sites

Yesterday, we activated North Lincs Talking Therapies (Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS FT) as the second site on the study, and they will begin recruitment shortly. We also trained another site, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS FT, on the 1st September. This site has three teams: Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn and Rossendale, and West Lancashire, and we hope to have these activated soon. Recruitment for Central Cheshire Talking Therapies is ongoing, and there are now 34 participants on the trial.

12th August 2025 - Recruitment update

Thank you to the therapists and research staff for all of your work enrolling patients onto the trial. With just one team, 24 participants have been recruited in the first month.

10th July 2025 - Off the mark!

The first trial participants have been recruited - there are now 2 participants in the trial.

8th July 2025 - First site activated

We are very pleased to announce that the first trial site has been activated and recruitment can begin. We are working with other trial sites to get them set up and ready to start recruiting.

27th June 2025 - Trial activated

With the StratCare app finalised and other checks and approvals in place, the trial has been activated and we can start to activate trial sites.

18th September 2024 - Ethics approval granted

The trial protocol has been reviewed and approved by the London - Brighton and Sussex Research Ethics Committee (ref 24/LO/0576). We are now working to recruit Talking Therapies teams into the trial.

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