Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the accuracy of autism diagnoses of females.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on autism set out that clinicians should pay attention to the under-diagnosis of females when assessing for suspected autism, and we expect integrated care boards to have due regard to these guidelines when commissioning services.

To support integrated care systems to make the best use of their resources and set out how autism assessment pathways can best be delivered, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance for autism assessment services, on 5 April 2023. These documents are intended to help the National Health Service and local authorities improve autism assessment services and improve the experience for adults and children who are going through an autism assessment. They also set out what support should be available before an assessment and what support should follow a recent diagnosis of autism.

We will continue to work with colleagues across NHS England, professional bodies, and people with lived experience so that those historically under-identified groups, including, but not limited to females, are better identified for access to good quality autism assessments where the multidisciplinary team have the competency to recognise and adjust for a wide range of needs.