Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the level of capacity with the NHS for (a) ADHD and (b) autism assessments.

It is the responsibility of the integrated care boards (ICBs) in England to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including assessments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.

Lord Darzi’s independent review of the National Health Service, published September 2024, highlighted that demand for assessments for ADHD and autism have grown significantly in recent years, and highlighted the severe delays for accessing such assessments.

The report noted that nationally the growth in demand for ADHD assessments over recent years has been so significant that it risks completely overwhelming the available resources. NHS England has established an ADHD taskforce which is working to bring together those with lived experience with experts from the NHS, education, charity, and justice sectors. The taskforce is working to get a better understanding of the challenges affecting those with ADHD, including timely and equitable access to services and support, with the final report expected in the summer.

In respect of autism, the latest Autism Waiting Times Statistics published by NHS England show that, in December 2024, there were 212,964 patients with an open referral for suspected autism. Of these, 191,656 had a referral that had been open at least 13 weeks. On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to deliver improved outcomes in all-age autism assessment pathways. This guidance aims to help ICBs and the NHS to deliver improved outcomes for children, young people, and adults referred to an autism assessment service. Since publication, NHS England has been supporting systems and services to identify where there are challenges for implementation and how they might overcome these.