Over 294,000 face waits for autism assessment 

As of June 2026, there were 294,792 patients with an open referral for suspected autism, latest NHS data has revealed. This is a 15% increase from June 2025.

Around Nine in Ten have been waiting, longer than the 13 weeks for an assessment recommend by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), with the average wait time being as high as three years in some areas.

Why are diagnoses increasing? 

More diagnoses do not mean more autism: the evidence consistently shows more people are seeking a diagnosis because of improved understanding and the overdue recognition of people who were previously missed, particularly women and girls. 

This is a good thing, diagnosis can mean finally understanding a lifetime of difficulties, enabling access to education or employment opportunities, and effective social care or mental health support. 

A timeline of government failure

Wait times for an autism assessment were already spiralling before the pandemic, with 62% of areas reporting they would miss the NICE recommendation in 2018, a 16% rise from two years earlier. 

In 2021, the Government published the most recent national autism strategy, which promised to reduce waiting times and acknowledged they were a major issue that needed to be urgently addressed. But with no methods of accountability and very limited funding, the strategy inevitably failed.

Three years ago, NHS England flagged that investment in assessment capacity had not kept pace with the number of referrals, yet the Government still took no meaningful action and instructed local Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to follow new guidance with no extra investment to do so.

Since Labour came to power, there has been no additional investment for autism assessments, with blame for this longstanding issue being shifted towards increasing demand alone.

The reality is that waiting times have been increasing even before larger rises in demand post-pandemic. The Government has presided over a system that is failing to increase capacity for several reasons:

• There has been no additional investment or a properly costed national plan for improving assessment capacity. 
• There is no NHS workforce plan for autism assessments
• The National Autism Strategy has been effectively abandoned since 2022 and the deadline for a refreshed strategy has already been missed.
• There is no requirement for ICBs to report assessment spending, capacity, staffing, or completed assessments.  
• Autism was not mentioned at all in the NHS 10-year plan, let alone any plan to improve autism assessments
• ICB spending on private providers to undertake assessments has more than doubled in the last year due to lack of internal capacity. 
• ICBs are turning to temporary initiatives such as restricting right to choose, creating a postcode lottery for autism services.

What are we calling for? 

The National Autistic Society is calling on the new Prime Minister to: 

• Write and fund a new Autism Strategy 
• Provide sufficient funding for assessment capacity 
• Create a system that provides support both before and after an assessment 

Our response

Mel Merritt, Head of Policy and Influencing at the National Autistic Society, said:  
“Waiting times for autism assessments are a national Government failure. Successive governments have had years of warning that the autism assessment wait times are growing, but they have failed to take any meaningful action. 
 
“There are no consequences for the Government, NHS England or Integrated Care Boards when targets for the maximum time people should be waiting are repeatedly missed, often by years. But for autistic people and their families, the consequences are massive. 
 
“Diagnosis can mean finally understanding a lifetime of difficulties, enabling access to education or employment opportunities, and effective social care or mental health support. Longer waiting times and restricting access to assessment will only serve to increase the high level of unmet need.
 
“Andy Burnham has said that he wants the Government to stop paying for failure when we should be instead investing in success. This is his opportunity to fix these failures, not by placing the burden or blame on autistic people, but by investing in assessment capacity, taking accountability for driving down wait times, and creating a system that provides support, both before and after an assessment.”

 
Gavin decided to seek an assessment in his 40s, after learning about autism through his son's diagnosis. He said:
"Even trying to get on the pathway to diagnosis was hard. It took three attempts and a mental breakdown for the doctor to finally refer me. I waited about three years for a diagnosis.

“By the time I received the diagnosis, I knew I was probably autistic as I'd done a lot of my own research, but I still broke down in tears - it was a rollercoaster of emotions.

“My life has changed massively since my diagnosis. Knowing that I'm autistic has helped me make sense of a lifetime of being underestimated, giving me the confidence to go from a school leaver with no qualifications to an award-winning Chartered Accountant.

“It's impossible to overstate the positive impact that an autism diagnosis can have on the lives of both an autistic person and their family."