Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will list all the (a) patient representative organisations, (b) clinical associations and (c) providers of NHS-funded autism and ADHD services NHS England has engaged with (i) before and (ii) since publishing proposed guide prices for autism and ADHD services in its 2026/27 payment scheme consultation, in respect of the prices proposed.

The statutory consultation for the NHS Payment Scheme 2026/27, which closed on 16 December 2025, provided an opportunity for all service providers to review the consultation guidance and provide comments and feedback. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/2026-27-nhsps-consultation/

NHS England is currently reviewing this feedback to inform the final 2026/27 Payment Scheme. This consultation was open to the public, but NHS England specifically reached out to all National Health Service providers, commissioners, and independent sector providers of NHS-funded autism diagnostic assessment services and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) services to ensure they were aware and were able to respond to the NHS Payment Scheme consultation and were invited to an NHS Payment Scheme engagement session in September 2025.

Prior to the publication of the consultation, NHS England undertook broad engagement with a number of clinicians, policy professionals, commissioners, and providers of ADHD and autism diagnostic assessment services prior to the publication of the NHS Payment Scheme consultation.

In addition to the engagement that was undertaken as part of the wider NHS Payment Scheme consultation, the following engagement took place on this policy area prior to consultation:

• engagement with the Independent Healthcare Provider Network (IHPN), representing independent sector providers; and
• engagement with healthcare policy professionals, clinicians, patient representative organisations, commissioners, and providers.

In addition, the following engagement took place on this policy area post-consultation:

• further engagement with the IHPN, representing independent sector providers;
• engagement with integrated care boards;
• engagement with independent sector providers;
• engagement with mental health trusts; and
• engagement with clinicians.

NHS England was informed by a variety of sources when developing the policy and associated guide prices, for instance:

• the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) clinical guidelines CG142, CG128, and CG170, and NICE’s quality standards, which are available at the following link: https://www.nice.org.uk/Guidance/QS51;
• NHS England’s published National framework and operational guidance for autism assessment services, available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/autism-diagnosis-and-operational-guidance/;
• NHS England’s published reports of the ADHD taskforce, available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/adhd/;
• local integrated care board service specifications;
• pricing information in a sample of contracts for provision of autism diagnostic assessment services and ADHD services; and
• a number of relevant academic papers, including, in particular, Realist evaluation of Autism ServiCe Delivery (RE-ASCeD): which diagnostic pathways work best, for whom and in what context? Findings from a rapid realist review, which contains autism diagnostic assessment costs.