ADHD Diagnosis Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
John Milne
Main Page: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)Department Debates - View all John Milne's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(1 day, 8 hours ago)
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Bill Esterson
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and he has made a very good point. My son has been diagnosed with ADHD—belatedly, like so many—but we were told early on that having a diagnosis would not help him. How wrong that was, because the diagnosis was the key to getting support and understanding what we were dealing with, both for him and for us as his carers. There is a lot of misinformation around, and getting that right is key, but yes—
John Milne (Horsham) (LD)
I am sorry for interrupting the hon. Member. Education, health and care plans are not supposed to depend on or require a formal diagnosis of ADHD but, in practice, that is how local authorities apply them. Families are far more likely to be challenged by the local authority if they do not have that diagnosis but, in my own area of West Sussex, the predicted waiting time for assessments has now risen to four and a half years, which is virtually an entire secondary education. Does the hon. Member agree that that Catch-22 situation requires urgent action from the Government?
Bill Esterson
The hon. Member is making the same point, which is that we need to clarify and have consistency across the country. That is, again, something that I hope will come out of the work that the Department is doing. I know that it is carrying out its own review and drawing on the work of the independent taskforce.