Publication, Part of [MI] ADHD

ADHD Management Information - February 2026

Publication Date:: 26 Feb 2026
Date Range:: 01 Dec 2024 to 01 Feb 2026

Data submissions from February 2025 onwards

Data submissions from February 2025 onwards are not directly comparable to previous months due to new submissions from independent providers that have resulted in an increase in the number of open referrals.

26 February 2026 09:30 AM

Psych UK Limited data submissions for November and December 2025

Psych UK Limited has been affected by delays in processing referrals. As a result, the data submitted by this provider for December 2025, and to a lesser extent, November 2025 is incomplete. This impacts data contained in tables 2 to 6 in the summary table file (measures ADHD003 to ADHD007). It is expected that Psych UK Limited will submit revised data for these months and this will be reflected in future publications.

26 February 2026 09:30 AM

Summary

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is defined by the World Health Organization as being characterised by a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that has a direct negative impact on academic, occupational, or social functioning, the level of which is outside the limits of normal variation expected for age and level of intellectual functioning. Historically there has been no specific data publicly available about people with ADHD. The ADHD data improvement plan highlighted the need to make use of and publish existing data held by NHS England in this area whilst also working to improve data quality.

In this initial publication data is available on the following areas: estimated prevalence of ADHD, the number of people who may be waiting for ADHD assessments, including how long they have been waiting.

A full list of measures currently contained in the publication is published in a data dictionary alongside each release.

Key Facts

Estimated number of people with ADHD

In February 2026, it is estimated that 2,498,000 people in England have ADHD, including those without a diagnosis.

Of these an estimated 741,000 are children and young people (aged 5-24).

Referrals for an ADHD assessment

In December 2025, there were up to 735,157 open referrals that may be for an ADHD assessment.

Of these, 562,480 referrals are recorded in the Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS) and up to 172,677 in the Community Health Services (CHS) SitRep dataset.

New referrals for an ADHD assessment

In December 2025, up to 18,915 new referrals were received to mental health services for a possible ADHD assessment.

This is an increase of 17.3% (2,790) from December 2024.