INTRODUCTION: At least one in four people treated by the primary care improving access to psychological therapies (IAPT) programme in England experiences distressing psychotic experiences (PE) in addition to common mental disorder (CMD). These individuals are less likely to achieve recovery. IAPT services do not routinely screen for nor offer specific treatments for CMD including PE. The Tailoring evidence-based psychological therapY for People with common mental disorder including Psychotic EXperiences study will evaluate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of an enhanced training for cognitive behavioural therapists that aims to address this clinical gap. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is a multisite, stepped-wedge cluster randomised controlled trial. The setting will be IAPT services within three mental health trusts. The participants will be (1) 56-80 qualified IAPT cognitive behavioural therapists and (2) 600 service users who are triaged as appropriate for cognitive behavioural therapy in an IAPT service and have PE according to the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences-Positive 15-items Scale. IAPT therapists will be grouped into eight study clusters subsequently randomised to the control-intervention sequence. We will obtain pseudonymous clinical outcome data from IAPT clinical records for eligible service users. We will invite service users to complete health economic measures at baseline, 3, 6, 9 and 12-month follow-up. The primary outcome will be the proportion of patients with common mental disorder psychotic experiences who have recovered by the end of treatment as measured by the official IAPT measure for recovery. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study received the following approvals: South Central-Berkshire Research Ethics Committee on 28 April 2020 (REC reference 20/SC/0135) and Health Research Authority (HRA) on 23 June 2020. An amendment was approved by the Ethics Committee on 01 October 2020 and HRA on 27 October 2020. Results will be made available to patients and the public, the funders, stakeholders in the IAPT services and other researchers. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN93895792.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust Cambridge Cambridgeshire UK

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust Fulbourn Cambridgeshire UK

Centre for the Economics of Mental and Physical Health King's College London London UK

Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychological Therapies Norwich Medical School University of East Anglia Norwich Norfolk UK

Health Sciences University of York York UK

Kinanthropology Charles University Prague Czechia

King's Health Economics King's College London Institute of Psychiatry Psychology and Neuroscience London UK

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Greater Manchester UK

Medicine Universidad de Salamanca IBSAL Salamanca Castilla y León Spain

Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust Norwich Norfolk UK

Norwich Medical School University of East Anglia Norwich Norfolk UK

Psychiatry University of Cambridge Cambridge Cambridgeshire UK

Psychology University of Oxford Oxford UK

Psychology University of Sussex Brighton Brighton and Hove UK

Psychology University of Sussex Brighton UK

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Worthing West Sussex UK

The McPin Foundation London Greater London UK

THIS Institute University of Cambridge Primary Care Unit Cambridge Cambridgeshire UK

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ISRCTN
ISRCTN93895792