Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting time for children between referral for an autism diagnosis and first diagnostic appointment was in each clinical commissioning group and primary care trust area in each year since 2010.

Alistair Burt

The Department does not collect this information centrally.

No formal statistics are collected of autism referrals, initial assessments or diagnoses. The Department does however commission Public Health England each year to carry out a self-assessment exercise with local authority areas on progress they are making in implementing the Autism Strategy for Adults in England.

NHS England has almost completed a programme to visit clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to identify and share good practice in accessing timely autism diagnosis. NHS England with support from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services has visited a selection of areas to talk to CCGs and local authorities about their Autism Diagnostic Care Pathways and post diagnostic support. A report on this work will go initially to the June meeting of the Cross Government Autism Programme Board.