{"id":788996,"date":"2026-10-01T22:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T22:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/788996\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T22:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T22:28:08","slug":"its-cruel-to-delay-adhd-and-autism-assessments-for-children-nhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/788996\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s cruel to delay ADHD and autism assessments for children | NHS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blocking assessments of children with neurodivergent conditions for over two years is cruel to children, deeply damaging to families and ultimately more costly to taxpayers (NHS bodies in England impose two-year minimum wait for ADHD and autism assessments, 25 September<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Imagine the long-term harm inflicted on a six-year-old child forced to wait two years for an assessment of a physical condition. Waiting for a diagnosis of autism or ADHD is no different. That\u2019s a quarter of a child\u2019s life, and ultimately their potential, put on hold by state bodies that should be supporting all children. It prevents young people receiving the medical and practical assistance they need to learn, make friends and achieve the ordinary things that other children can every day.<\/p>\n

We know that three-quarters of parents have had to reduce working hours or stop work because of a lack of support that can be put in place with a diagnosis. It\u2019s no wonder that young people and their families reach our members\u2019 services in or near crisis because of protracted waits for information.<\/p>\n

We have strongly voiced our concerns about the lack of engagement from the Department of Health<\/a> and Social Care with the government\u2019s reform ambitions on special educational needs. The NHS\u2019s rationing of assessments is the exact opposite of the Department for Education\u2019s principle of ensuring early help for young people.<\/p>\n

This is not joined-up government. It must be sorted out before another generation of children is failed.
Anna Bird
Chair, Disabled Children\u2019s Partnership<\/p>\n

Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blocking assessments of children with neurodivergent conditions for over two years is cruel to children, deeply damaging to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-788996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}