Skip to main content

Publication, Part of

Autism Statistics, April 2023 to March 2024

Experimental statistics, Official statistics in development

Publication Date:
23 May 2024
Date Range:
01 Apr 2019 to 31 Mar 2024

Current Chapter

Autism Statistics, April 2023 to March 2024

View all

Next Chapter

Methodology

Sub-ICB, ICB and Region breakdowns

We have identified an issue with the sub-ICB, ICB and Region breakdowns affecting all financial years up to and including April 2023 to March 2024.  This issue means the figures in the "Unknown" group are much higher than they should be.

These breakdowns within the historic csv files available under 'Resources' below should be disregarded at present. 

Sub-ICB, ICB and Region breakdowns are available for the most up to date reporting period (April 2024 to March 2025) within the most up date release of this publication, available at

Autism Statistics, April 2024 to March 2025

NHS England apologises for any inconvenience.

4 June 2025 11:29 AM

Issue with waiting time metrics – November 2024

We have identified a methodological issue with the calculation of the waiting time metrics resulting in an overcount in some metrics and an undercount in others. A fix has been implemented and a revised set of data has been provided using the updated methodology for all historical time periods. 

This is available on the following publication page (latest as at the time of this change notice)

Autism Statistics, July 2023 to June 2024

All subsequent publications will also contain revised data in respect of historical time periods.

Please refer to either this publication or a subsequent one for the revised data

Below are the affected metrics:

  • ASD18a - Number of patients with an open suspected autism referral in the month that has been open for at least 13 weeks receiving a first appointment after more than 13 weeks
  • ASD18b - Number of patients with an open suspected autism referral in the month that has been open for at least 13 weeks that have not had a care contact appointment recorded
  • ASD18e - Number of patients aged 0 to 17 with an open suspected autism referral in the month that has been open for at least 13 weeks receiving a first appointment after more than 13 weeks
  • ASD18f - Number of patients aged 0 to 17 with an open suspected autism referral in the month that has been open for at least 13 weeks that have not had a care contact appointment recorded
  • ASD18g - Number of patients aged 18 and over with an open suspected autism referral in the month that has been open for at least 13 weeks receiving a first appointment after more than 13 weeks
  • ASD18h - Number of patients aged 18 and over with an open suspected autism referral in the month that has been open for at least 13 weeks that have not had a care contact appointment recorded
  • ASD19a - Proportion of patients with an open suspected autism referral in the month that has been open for at least 13 weeks receiving a first appointment after more than 13 weeks
  • ASD19b - Proportion of patients with an open suspected autism referral in the month that has been open for at least 13 weeks that have not had a care contact appointment recorded
  • ASD19e - Proportion of patients aged 0 to 17 with an open suspected autism referral in the month that has been open for at least 13 weeks receiving a first appointment after more than 13 weeks
  • ASD19f - Proportion of patients aged 0 to 17 with an open suspected autism referral in the month that has been open for at least 13 weeks that have not had a care contact appointment recorded
  • ASD19g - Proportion of patients aged 18 and over with an open suspected autism referral in the month that has been open for at least 13 weeks receiving a first appointment after more than 13 weeks
  • ASD19h - Proportion of patients aged 18 and over with an open suspected autism referral in the month that has been open for at least 13 weeks that have not had a care contact appointment recorded

NHS England apologises for any inconvenience caused.

6 November 2024 09:30 AM

Page contents

Summary

These statistics present a group of measures on waiting times for autism spectrum disorder diagnostic pathways, based on the time between a referral for suspected autism and the first care contact associated with that referral.

There are also multiple breakdowns based on the progression and outcomes of those referrals.

Each of these measures contributes to an overall picture of waiting times for diagnostic pathways. The approach is outlined in the methodology section of this publication.

Highlights

Autism assessments for children and adolescents happen in two types of NHS service, child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) services and community paediatric services which undertake neurodevelopmental assessment. Activity in CAMH services is reported alongside adult mental healthcare activity in the Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS) and is included in this report. Activity in community paediatric services is reported through the Community Services Dataset (CSDS). Currently autism assessments are not clearly identifiable in CSDS and so cannot be included at present.

We are exploring developments in the identification of this activity in the CSDS with the intention of including this activity in future reports.

Revised data submission windows

To provide more timely statistics, revised data submission windows have been introduced recently.  This has helped support a move to reporting data one month, rather than two months, following activity as has historically been the case.

Editions of the series from this one onwards are affected by this change.

Methodological Change

From the September 2023 publication onwards, the methodology used for the specified measures below within the Autism Waiting Time Statistics will include the following change.

We have changed the way that a referral for ‘suspected autism’ is counted as open.  Previously, open and close dates in the latest submitted version of a referral were used to determine which months the referral is counted as open. Data submitted to MHSDS includes a row of data for each referral for each unique month that the referral is open. After consulting with providers and carrying out some exploratory analysis into how effective providers are at closing referrals in the system and looking into why referrals remain open for a long period of time, we have agreed to implement a change in the logic of how we calculate open referrals in the publication. The new methodology will only count the referrals as open in the months when a row of data has been submitted or flowed. This means we can be sure that the referrals that are flowed each month are definitely active and we can be confident that this number of open referrals provides a more accurate view of this.

For more information on the scope of the Methodological Change please follow this link.

Access the code used to create this report

The code used to create the outputs for this report is available on our NHS Digital GitHub webpage.

Click here to access the code

Referral Waiting Times

In March 2024, there were 183,733 patients with an open referral for suspected autism. Of these, 160,396 (87.3%) had a referral that had been open at least 13 weeks.

First Appointments

In March 2024, 5.6% (9,034) of the patients with an open referral that had been open more than 13 weeks had had a first appointment within the recommended 13 weeks.

Open/Closed Referrals

There were 9,377 new referrals and 7,858 closed referrals in March 2024. This is an decrease of 34.6% for new referrals and an increase of 0.5% for closed referrals compared to March 2023.

Waiting time from referral to care contact dashboard

Open the interactive dashboard This tool is in Microsoft Power BI which does not fully support all accessibility needs. If you need further assistance, please contact us for help.

Last edited: 4 June 2025 11:29 am