Rising demand for ADHD and autism assessment in England

Demand for ADHD and autism assessment in England has grown substantially over the past few years, and this has become a recurring subject of debate in Parliament and of statistical reporting by NHS England. This article looks at what has actually been published, how the figures have changed over time, and why officials themselves caution that the numbers come with important limitations.

How the issue reached Parliament

Concerns about long waits for autism and ADHD assessment led to an e-petition debate in the House of Commons. A House of Commons Library briefing published ahead of that debate, dated 2 February 2023, reported that "in July 2022 (the latest data available) there were just over 125,000 people waiting for a clinical autism assessment" in England, and that "85% had been waiting for over 13 weeks."

Notably, the same briefing recorded that ADHD waiting times were not routinely published as national statistics at that date. This matters because it means comparable, official ADHD waiting list figures for England are a relatively recent development, not a long-running dataset.

What the NHS England Digital figures now show

Since routine ADHD Management Information (MI) began, NHS England Digital has published estimates of how many people in England may be waiting for an ADHD assessment. These figures have shown a consistent upward trend:

• May 2025 publication: "in March 2025, up to 549,000 people may be waiting for an ADHD assessment" in England. The same publication recorded up to 20,000 people newly referred for an ADHD assessment in March 2025 alone, an increase of 13.5% (2,000) compared with March 2024.
• November 2025 publication: "up to 700,123 people who may be waiting for an ADHD assessment" as at September 2025.

That is a rise of over 150,000 in the estimated waiting population across roughly six months of reporting, on NHS England Digital's own figures.

NHS England Digital's most recent MI ADHD release, published in May 2026, goes further and estimates the total number of people in England with ADHD, including those who have never been formally diagnosed. It puts this figure at around 2,492,000 people, of whom 741,000 are aged 5 to 24. This is a prevalence estimate, not a count of people currently on a waiting list, and the two figures should not be confused.

Why the data comes with a health warning

NHS England Digital and the House of Commons Library both use language that is more tentative than a simple headcount would suggest, describing numbers of people who "may be waiting" rather than a confirmed total. This reflects known limitations in how ADHD assessment activity is recorded and reported across different NHS organisations in England, including inconsistencies in how referrals, re-referrals and waiting list removals are logged locally.

NHS England's independent ADHD Taskforce, in its Part 1 report (published 20 June 2025, updated 9 December 2025), explicitly calls for Integrated Care Boards and the Department of Health and Social Care to prioritise reducing ADHD waiting lists and to improve the quality of the underlying data. In other words, the body producing the national ADHD strategy has itself acknowledged that current figures are an estimate rather than a precise record, and that better data collection is part of the job still to be done.

What the Taskforce said about the wider cost

Beyond the waiting list numbers, the Taskforce's Part 1 report also estimated the broader economic cost of not treating ADHD at around £17 billion. This figure sits alongside its finding that waiting times for NHS ADHD services in England are "increasing (up to 4+ years for children, up to 8+ years for adults)" and that "demand outstrips the capacity of services." The Taskforce report is explicitly about NHS England provision, and its figures should not be read as covering Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, which run their own health services and, in the case of Right to Choose arrangements, operate differently outside England.

Why the distinction between autism and ADHT data matters

It is worth being precise about which condition a given statistic relates to. The 2023 House of Commons Library figure of 125,000 people waiting related specifically to autism assessment, at a time when comparable ADHD data was not yet routinely published. The more recent NHS England Digital figures (549,000 in March 2025, rising to 700,123 in September 2025) relate specifically to ADHD assessment. Autism and ADHD assessment pathways, though sometimes provided by the same services, are tracked separately in official reporting, and conflating the two risks overstating or understating either figure.

What this means for people currently waiting

For anyone currently waiting for an ADHD or autism assessment in England, these national figures will not change how quickly their own local service can see them. But they do provide useful context: long waits are a widely reported, system-level issue rather than something specific to one individual's referral, and the official response so far, via the independent ADHD Taskforce, has been to call for more funding, more capacity and better data rather than to claim the problem is already solved.

Anyone concerned about their own or a family member's wait can contact their GP for an update on referral status, and can look at published NHS England Digital MI ADHD reports for the latest national figures, remembering that these are estimates with acknowledged limitations rather than a precise, real-time count.

ADHD Tribe provides non-clinical coaching for adults with ADHD and for parents, which sits alongside NHS assessment and treatment pathways rather than replacing them.

Why "up to" language matters when reading these figures

Throughout the official reporting on ADHD and autism waiting lists, you will notice phrases like "up to 549,000 people may be waiting" rather than a single confirmed number. This is a deliberate and, on balance, honest way of presenting data that the reporting bodies themselves acknowledge has known limitations. It means the true figure could be somewhat lower than the headline number, for reasons including people who have already been seen elsewhere, duplicate records, or referrals that have not been correctly closed on local systems. It does not mean the figures are made up or unreliable in a general sense, but it does mean they should be treated as informed estimates of scale and direction rather than as a precise, audited headcount. Understanding this distinction can help when discussing these figures with others, since overstating their precision, for example by quoting "700,123" as if it were an exact, verified count, risks misrepresenting what NHS England Digital itself says about the data.

What this rising demand looks like from inside a single family's experience

National statistics can feel abstract, so it is worth pausing on what a rising waiting list actually means for an individual family. A parent or adult who is referred for an ADHD assessment today is, on the evidence set out in this article, likely to be joining a longer queue than someone referred a year or two earlier, simply because referral numbers have been rising faster than assessment capacity. This does not mean nothing can be done in the meantime. Adults can look at practical, non-clinical strategies for managing day-to-day difficulties while waiting, and parents of children awaiting assessment can, in England, seek support through the school SEND system without needing to wait for a diagnosis first, since that system does not require one.

Questions worth asking your GP about your own referral

If you or your child has been referred for an ADHD or autism assessment, it is reasonable to ask your GP practice for a rough idea of current local waiting times, whether that referral has been formally accepted by the assessment service, and what to do if your situation changes significantly while you wait. Because national figures are described as estimates with acknowledged data-quality issues, a national number will not tell you anything precise about your own position in a local queue, so a direct check with your GP practice or the receiving service remains the most reliable way to get an up-to-date picture.

The distinction between prevalence and waiting list figures, restated

It is worth returning to a distinction already introduced in this article, because it is easy to blur in conversation: NHS England Digital's estimate that around 2,492,000 people in England may have ADHD (including those undiagnosed) describes the estimated size of the whole population who might have the condition, whether or not they have ever sought assessment. The separate waiting list figures (549,000 in March 2025, rising to 700,123 by September 2025) describe people who have already been referred and are waiting to be seen. Confusing the two would suggest, wrongly, that the entire estimated ADHD population is currently sitting on an NHS waiting list, when in fact many people with ADHD, diagnosed or not, are not currently in the assessment pipeline at all. Keeping these two categories of figure separate is important for anyone reporting on, or trying to understand, this area.

What campaigners and Parliament have focused on

The House of Commons Library briefing that preceded the 2023 e-petition debate, and the subsequent work of NHS England's independent ADHD Taskforce, both reflect sustained parliamentary and public interest in this issue, rather than a single one-off intervention. The general thrust of this engagement, as reflected in the Taskforce's recommendations, has been toward calling for increased funding, improved service capacity and better-quality underlying data, rather than toward any specific promise of when waiting times might come down. Anyone following this issue closely may want to watch for future NHS England Digital publications and any further Taskforce reports, since these are the primary sources likely to show whether waiting times begin to change in either direction.

References

• House of Commons Library, E-petition debate relating to assessments for autism and ADHD
• NHS England Digital, ADHD Management Information, May 2025
• NHS England Digital, ADHD Management Information, November 2025
• NHS England Digital, ADHD Management Information, May 2026
• NHS England, Report of the Independent ADHD Taskforce, Part 1