In a speech at an event held by the New Savoy Partnership, a group pressing for greater access to psychological therapies, the health secretary said realising the 'truly universal offer, with people from all parts of the country being able to draw on' these services was a 'major priority'.
He said the DoH would publish benchmarking data to show whether NHS organisations were offering psychological therapies and how effective they were.
'This will strengthen your hand in local negotiations,' Mr Burnham said.
He said the NHS had pledged to broaden the range of services on offer in each of the 45 sites in its Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme.
But he admitted: 'These are still early days for IAPT. It is clear that we'll need to continue the training programme for several more years to realise the universal offer.'
