Over 336,000 face waits for autism assessment

As of September 2026, there were 336,764 people waiting for an autism assessment, a 34% increase since last year, latest NHS data has revealed.

Nearly 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

Joey Nettleton Burrows, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the National Autistic Society, said:

"In September 2026, there were over 336,000 people waiting for an autism assessment. This is a 34% increase since last year. Of these, 87% have been waiting longer than the NICE guidelines of three months. The average waiting times in some areas are as long as three years and 7 months.

“An autism diagnosis can be life-changing. Since we’ve learned more about autism and become better at identifying and diagnosing it, there are now more people getting a diagnosis. But long wait times mean that autistic people are faced with avoidable delays, pushing many into crisis, with no consequences for the Government or NHS England when wait time targets are repeatedly missed.

“Successive Governments have failed autistic people and their families, who are facing widespread harm and distress. These latest shocking figures highlight the desperate need for an overhaul of this broken system, as recommended in the recent Fonagy Review. But any move to a needs-led system that abandons those currently waiting for an assessment will only increase harm.

“Action is needed now. There is a clear need for sustained investment in NHS workforce capacity, so that the needs of autistic people are finally recognised and properly addressed.”