Publication, Part of Autism Waiting Time Statistics
Autism Statistics, October 2024 to September 2025
Experimental statistics, Official statistics in development
Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust Data
No data for the Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (RYW) provider has been submitted for the latest quarter (July to September 2025). This has led to a drop in the number of open referrals for patients of all ages (ASD16, ASD16a and data quality metric ASD11) and patients aged 0 to17 years (ASD16b, ASD16c and data quality metric ASD11a) at England level from June to July 2025. Our methodology to calculate the number of open referrals each month relies on a record for each referral being flowed in the month.
The number of new and closed referrals for patients of all ages (ASD12 and ASD13) and patients aged 0 to 17 years (ASD12a and ASD13a) may also be impacted.
13 November 2025 09:30 AM
Sub-ICB, ICB and Region breakdowns
In the previous edition of this publication, we issued a notice informing users that we had resolved a previously identified issue with the sub-ICB, ICB and Region breakdowns affecting all financial years from 2019/20 to 2023/24 inclusive.
This issue meant the figures in the "Unknown" group were much higher than they should have been.
We are now aware that this issue persisted in the 2022/23 csv files that were issued on 14th August 2025, although it was resolved in respect of the csv files for all other financial years that were published at this time.
It has now also been resolved in respect of the 2022/23 csv files that are issued as part of this publication.
There is, however, a minor outstanding issue affecting a limited amount of subnational 2019-20 data.
As a result, metrics ASD16f, ASD16g, ASD16h, ASD16i, ASD16j, ASD16k, ASD25, ASD25a and ASD25b within the ‘AutismStats_Apr2019_Mar2020_Region’ and ‘AutismStats_Apr2019_Mar2020_ICB’ CSV files are currently omitted. All other files contain the full set of metrics across the full time series
NHS England apologises for any inconvenience.
13 November 2025 09:30 AM
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
Data Quality Measures removed
From the September 2023 publication onwards, we changed the way that a referral for ‘suspected autism’ is counted as open.
Under this new methodology, we now only count a referral as open in the month 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 active, and we can be confident that the number of open referrals provides a more accurate view of this.
Further details are available here.
As a result, the following metrics have effectively been made redundant. They will no longer be published as of this edition of the publication onwards.
ASD14 - Number of open, suspected autism referrals in the month that do not appear in any subsequent month whether discharged or not
ASD14a - Number of open, suspected autism referrals for those aged 0 to 17 in the month that do not appear in any subsequent month whether discharged or not
ASD14b - Number of open, suspected autism referrals for those aged 18 and over in the month that do not appear in any subsequent month whether discharged or not
Revised approach to production of data for completed financial years
Up to and including the August 2025 publication, csv outputs were recreated in respect of all completed financial years, as well as for the financial year currently in progress, using the latest available multiple submission window model (MSWM) data submitted to MHSDS.
As of the November 2025 publication onwards, the csv outputs in respect of completed financial years will not be recreated. The latest available MSWM data from MHSDS will be used to create csv files in respect of the financial year currently in progress only.
This aligns with the production processes for the main MHSDS monthly publication.
It may occasionally be necessary to make exceptions to this however. For example, in the November 2025 publication, the 2022-23 has been refreshed to resolve an outstanding issue relating to high levels of unknowns within sub-national data.
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.
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.
Data Quality
Figures should be interpreted with caution as Data Quality issues may be present in the data used to create the measures. Please see the 'Data Quality Comments' available from here which contains details of providers who have reported Data Quality issues.
Key Facts
Referral Waiting Times
In September 2025, there were 227,813 patients with an open referral for suspected autism. Of these, 205,182 (90.1%) had a referral that had been open at least 13 weeks.
First Appointments
In September 2025, 4.1% (8,449) 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 7,850 new referrals and 10,337 closed referrals in September 2025. This is a decrease of 33.1% for new referrals and an increase of 39.8% for closed referrals compared to September 2024.
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.
Resources
Last edited: 13 November 2025 9:31 am