Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for an autism diagnosis.

We expect integrated care boards (ICBs) to have due regard to relevant best practice guidelines when commissioning services, including for autism assessments. The waiting time standard recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is for a maximum waiting time of 13 weeks between a referral for an autism assessment and a first appointment.

NHS England are developing a national framework to support the delivery of high quality autism assessment pathways for children, young people and adults. The aim of this work is to improve access to and the quality of these assessment processes and to reduce waiting times. The framework will be published in due course.

Building on the 2021/22 investment of £13 million, through the NHS Long Term Plan and COVID-19 Mental Health Recovery Plan, we are investing £2.5 million in 2022/23 to support local areas to make improvements to autism assessment pathways.

We are also investing £600,000 into expanding an autism early identification pilot to at least a hundred schools in the Bradford area over five years. This programme will help with the early identification of neurodivergent children.