Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Diagnosis
(asked on 29th July 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting times were for (a) ADHD and (b) autism assessments in each year since 2010.
There is, at present, no single, established dataset that can be used to monitor waiting times for the assessment or treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) nationally. The National Institute for Health and Care Research has commissioned a research project to provide initial insights into local ADHD diagnosis waiting times data collection. We are also supporting a taskforce that NHS England is establishing to look at ADHD service provision, announced in March 2024. The taskforce will bring together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the National Health Service, education, and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD. NHS England is also working to develop a national ADHD data improvement plan.
In regard to autism, waiting times are published quarterly by NHS England, and include information about the waiting time from referral to a first care contact, since 2019. Further information is available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/autism-statistics
The following table shows the number of people with an open referral, the number of people with an open referral and a care contact, and the median waiting time in days of patients with an open suspected autism referral, where their first care contact was within the year, for each of the last five years:
Year | People with an open referral | People with an open referral and a care contact | Median waiting time between referral and first contact in days |
2019/20 | 53,857 | 12,602 | 128 |
2020/21 | 87,654 | 15,540 | 226 |
2021/22 | 130,060 | 22,608 | 214 |
2022/23 | 199,975 | 31,463 | 210 |
2023/24 | 280,338 | 39,371 | 296 |
Source: Mental Health Services Dataset.
Notes:
- care contact is used as a proxy for an assessment, and data could only be provided from 2019/20 as this is the first full year in which the methodology was agreed, and the data quality of the fields used in the autism pathway was sufficient; and
- given autism data has only been published since 2019/20, it should be expected that data quality would improve over time, and as such, some of the change seen will be the result of data quality improvements.