(UK) Derbys: Kids face wait 59 weeks for ASD assessments; referrals outstrip capacity

April 30, 2026, Derbyshire Times:  Derbyshire patients waiting for autism assessments facing some of longest waits in the country

https://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/news/people/derbyshire-patients-waiting-for-autism-assessments-facing-some-of-longest-waits-in-the-country-8305407

Although backlogs and demand for autism spectrum assessments are issues across the country and certainly not isolated to Derbyshire, the county’s experts see themselves significantly on the back foot.

The Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust currently has a 1,200-person backlog for autism spectrum assessments with an average wait of more than a year – 59 weeks.

The trust discloses in its recent board papers that it is commissioned to carry out 26 assessments per month but is receiving 96 referrals per month, vastly outstripping its capacity.

 The trust says it is currently on track to meet national guidelines to have assessed all patients within three months of a referral by June next year. Picture for illustrative purposes.

It details that while the waiting list is reducing month on month – and once stood at more than 2,000 people – it is currently processing 59 assessments per month, as of January, which would see it take 20 months – a year and eight months – to clear its backlog entirely, without any new referrals.

The trust says it is currently on track to meet national guidelines to have assessed all patients within three months of a referral by June next year.

All of this sees the trust finding itself ranked fourth worst for the percentage of patients waiting over a year for services at 62 per cent as of January this year.

The trust says the national median is just 0.3 per cent waiting over a year and that the mean average – a different way of calculating an average – is eight per cent.

It hopes to improve its current standards to 14 per cent of patients waiting more than a year by transferring the key causes – backlogs in community paediatric autism assessments and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) into its “mental health services dataset”. . . .

 “Waiting times remain very high at around 59 weeks, with demand far exceeding commissioned capacity. . . .

 “Neurodevelopmental waits are not expected to be recoverable without significant additional investment.

“However, the data quality improvement work should result in a significant reduction in the proportion waiting over 52 weeks.”