Adult ADHD assessment: NHS waits by area
In June 2026, 572,570 adults in England had an open NHS referral that may be for an assessment for ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), and 437,055 of them hadn’t yet had a first contact. How long people wait depends a lot on where they live. Enter your postcode to see your area.
This page is for adults aged 18 and over. NHS England’s local figures for children don’t yet include community paediatric services, which is where most children are assessed, so we don’t show them.
New to NHS terms? See our NHS glossary.
Your area is your integrated care board (ICB), the local NHS body that plans and pays for care where you live.
What these figures do and don’t tell you
NHS England publishes these numbers every three months, about two months after the month they cover. They count referrals to NHS mental health services marked as neurodevelopmental, which is mostly ADHD but includes some other conditions. They include some people who already have a diagnosis and are waiting for NHS medication. They don’t include people assessed by Right to Choose or private providers who don’t report to the NHS dataset. The wait shown is the time since referral with no first contact recorded. It’s not the time to assessment, which is usually longer. NHS England calls this management information rather than official statistics, so treat it as a guide to how your area compares, not a prediction of your own wait.
Your options while you wait
Stay with your local NHS service
You keep your place in the queue. Ask your GP practice to confirm your referral was sent and accepted, and ask the service for an idea of how long people are currently waiting.
Choose a different NHS-funded provider (Right to Choose)
If a GP refers you for an ADHD assessment, you have a legal right to choose any provider in England that holds an NHS contract for that service, including independent clinics that work for the NHS. It’s free, and many of them assess online, so where they’re based doesn’t matter. Some areas are limiting how many of these referrals they fund each year, so a provider may be full or may not be accepting referrals from your area right now. See Right to Choose below.
Pay for a private assessment
A private adult ADHD assessment usually costs £700 or more; check the clinic’s price before you book. Before you pay, ask your GP practice whether it would take over prescribing afterwards under a shared care agreement, because some practices won’t. The same question applies to Right to Choose providers.
ADHD medicines have to be started by a specialist. A GP can take over prescribing only if there’s a shared care agreement between the GP and the specialist. Ask your practice about this before you choose a provider.
Your right to choose an ADHD assessment provider
When a GP refers you for an ADHD assessment, you have a legal right to choose which provider sees you. That includes any clinic in England that holds an NHS contract for ADHD assessments, even if it’s an independent clinic and even if it’s in another part of the country. The NHS pays; you don’t. Three things need to be true: the provider holds an NHS contract for this service, your GP agrees the referral is appropriate, and the provider accepts the referral. Some areas have agreed yearly limits with these providers, so a provider may be full or may not be taking referrals from your area at the moment. That doesn’t remove your right; it means you may need to ask about another provider.
How to ask your GP
Tell your GP practice which provider you’d like to be referred to, and that you’re asking under your legal right to choose. It helps to check the provider’s own website first for whether they’re taking NHS referrals from your area and what the practice needs to send. Your GP decides whether a referral for an assessment is appropriate; the choice of where it goes is yours.
If your practice says no
Ask them to explain why in writing. If the reason is that the practice doesn’t do Right to Choose referrals, or that your area has stopped them, that isn’t a reason the rules allow: the right applies at the point of referral and your area’s funding arrangements with providers don’t take it away. You can raise it with the practice manager first, then with your integrated care board (ICB), which must make sure patients are offered a choice. If that doesn’t resolve it, you can take it to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. If the reason is clinical (your GP doesn’t think an assessment referral is appropriate at the moment), that’s a different conversation, and you can ask what would change their view.
NHS-funded providers you can ask about
These independent providers say they take NHS Right to Choose referrals for adult ADHD assessments. Check each one’s website for whether they’re accepting referrals from your area right now and what your GP needs to send; this changes often. We don’t list their waiting times because they publish their own and they change. Listing here isn’t a recommendation.
What an ADHD assessment involves
The assessment is with a specialist, such as a psychiatrist. They’ll ask about your history, including when you were at school, and about work, education, family and friends, and your medical history. They may ask to speak to someone who knows you well. If you’re diagnosed, they’ll talk you through what happens next. Source: NHS.
Adult ADHD assessment waits by area, June 2026
| Area | Open referrals | Waiting for first contact | Over a year | Over two years | New a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hampshire and Isle of Wight | 32,920 | 29,595 | 75% | 50% | 475 |
| Coventry and Warwickshire | 6,935 | 5,245 | 73% | 47% | 515 |
| Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland | 16,105 | 12,635 | 73% | 45% | 425 |
| Devon | 15,800 | 12,710 | 73% | 50% | 415 |
| Black Country | 13,275 | 11,040 | 72% | 43% | 545 |
| Norfolk and Suffolk | 23,055 | 15,910 | 70% | 48% | 680 |
| Surrey and Sussex | 44,340 | 35,120 | 67% | 47% | 1,545 |
| North East and North Cumbria | 42,495 | 32,325 | 62% | 39% | 1,990 |
| West Yorkshire | 22,180 | 17,505 | 61% | 38% | 915 |
| Thames Valley | 18,440 | 14,050 | 60% | 36% | 675 |
Figures: NHS England ADHD Management Information, data to June 2026, published 27 August 2026. Next update expected late November 2026.