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Publication, Part of

Autism Statistics, April 2019 to December 2021

Experimental statistics,

Publication Date:
10 Mar 2022
Date Range:
01 Apr 2019 to 31 Dec 2021

Current Chapter

Autism Statistics, April 2019 to December 2021

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Methodology

We have noticed an error in the way the following measures were produced after MHSDS version 5 resulting in an overcount of these figures. This issue has been fixed and the corrected data can be found within the data files on the publication pages below:

 

MEASURE_ID

MEASURE_NAME

ASD18

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 in 13 weeks or less

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

ASD18c

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 in 13 weeks or less

ASD18d

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 in 13 weeks or less

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

ASD19

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 in 13 weeks or less

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

ASD19c

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 in 13 weeks or less

ASD19d

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 in 13 weeks or less

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

 

Autism Statistics, April 2021 to March 2022 - NDRS (digital.nhs.uk)

Autism Statistics, April 2022 to March 2023 - NDRS (digital.nhs.uk)

20 July 2023 13:10 PM

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.

The data files for this publication have been revised to include a correction to an issue which meant that counts had previously been restricted to only count the latest instance a person appeared in the reporting period. This meant that where a person had a referral with multiple organisations in the reporting period only the latest instance would have been counted. This fix has seen an increase in figures at national level of approximately 3%-5%. As the outputs we publish look back at the last 12 months, please refer to the latest publication as these figures will supersede the previous publications.

There has been a revision to the methodology of measure ASD17 following a review of how this is constructed. This measure previously counted referrals that are open within the month regardless of whether they have also flowed in that month. Previously, this meant that some referrals which have not flowed for a long time were contributing to the metric. This measure has now been revised to count open referrals that had been flowed within the month only.

As of March 2022, this publication is based on a new set of Autism Measures. These new measures have been designed following a review of the statistics with NHS England and NHS Improvement. The previous forward model methodology reported all activity back to the date of the referral and did not present current waiting list information. The new measures have been designed to report the current number patients with an open referral as well as the numbers of new, open and closed referrals at different points in time. Specific data quality measures have also been produced to help providers identify where there might be issues with their data.

The intention is to review and develop these metrics for future publications.

These are experimental statistics and are published to involve users and stakeholders in their development to build in quality and reliability at an early stage.

Between January and December 2021, the number of patients with an open referral for suspect autism has increased from nearly 68,000 to just over 93,000. The number receiving a first appointment within 13 weeks has also increased in that time from 5,494 to 7,171.

New and closed referrals for suspected autism

There were 7,086 new referrals to specialist mental health services for suspected autism and 4,668 referrals were closed in December 2021.

Patients with open Referrals

In December 2021 there were 93,344 patients with an open referral for suspected Autism. This is an increase of 38% compared with January 2021.

Waiting time from referral to first care contact

Between January and December 2021, the number of patients with a referral for suspected autism receiving their first care contact within 13 weeks has been steadily rising from 5,494 in January to 7,171 in December. This is an increase of 31%.

Latest 6 Months

The latest 6 months of data for the headline measures is shown below. 
 

       

 

 

Jul 21 

Aug 21 

Sep 21 

Oct 21 

Nov 21 

Dec 21 

ASD12 

Number of new referrals for suspected autism in the month 

 6,640 4,841 5,910 5,952 7,106 7,086

ASD13 

Number of referrals for suspected autism closed in the month 

 4,100 3,565 3, 618 4,255 4,549 4,668

ASD16 

Number of patients with an open referral for suspected autism 

 82,933 83,699 85,914 88,153 90,964 93,344

ASD18 

Number of patients with an open referral for suspected autism by month in the reporting period receiving a first appointment in 13 weeks or less 

 6,349 6,483 6,612 6,787 6,941 7,171

ASD20 

Number of patients which have an open referral in the month and at least one care contact in the month which is part of a suspected autism referral 

 4,454 3,844 4,601 4,660 5,363 4,142

ASD21 

Number of patients with an autism referral and autism diagnosis in the month 

 387 357 371 377 404 391

ASD23 

Number of suspected autism referrals with a non-autism Mental and Behavioural disorder diagnosis recorded in the month 

 131 127 148 128 107 126

ASD24 

Number of suspected autism referrals with a non-autism and non-Mental and Behavioural disorder diagnosis recorded in the month 

 73 84 89 70 36 42

Important Notes:

A referral for suspected autism is defined as a referral where either the primary reason OR other reason for the referral is "Suspected Autism".

Measures ASD16 includes patients where there has been less than 13 weeks from the referral date to the end of the month. Calculating the proportion of patients with an open referral and who have received a first appointment within 13 weeks using these metrics is not comparable to metric ASD04 from previous publications because a 13 week reporting lag was incorporated into the Forward Model methodology.

 

Waiting time from referral to care contact dashboard

Open the interactive dashboard

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Last edited: 20 July 2023 1:11 pm