Publication, Part of Autism Waiting Time Statistics
Autism Statistics, July 2025 to June 2026
Experimental statistics, Official statistics in development
Integrated Care Board (ICB) changes from 1 April 2026
New Integrated Care Board (ICB) boundary changes came into effect from 1 April 2026. Six new ICBs were established and the boundary of an existing ICB was widened through the abolition of 12 existing ICBs.
This publication is the first in the series to reflect these changes. All activity is presented on the basis of in year geography mappings.
Further information is available here
13 August 2026 09:30 AM
Impact of ICB changes on ASD16f to ASD16k
There are a group of metrics (ASD16f to ASD16k) that calculate the rate per 100,000 population of patients with an open referral for suspected autism. Due to the census 2021 reference data not currently being available for legacy Frimley areas that were impacted by the 1 April 2026 changed, we have not been able to provide April to June 2026 for data for these metrics for the following Sub ICBs and ICBs:
Sub ICBs
10R NHS HAMPSHIRE AND ISLE OF WIGHT ICB - 10R
D9Y0V NHS HAMPSHIRE AND ISLE OF WIGHT ICB - D9Y0V
09D NHS SURREY AND SUSSEX ICB - 09D
70F NHS SURREY AND SUSSEX ICB - 70F
92A NHS SURREY AND SUSSEX ICB - 92A
97R NHS SURREY AND SUSSEX ICB - 97R
10Q NHS THAMES VALLEY ICB - 10Q
14Y NHS THAMES VALLEY ICB - 14Y
15A NHS THAMES VALLEY ICB - 15A
U2G6B NHS THAMES VALLEY ICB - U2G6B
ICBs
QRL NHS HAMPSHIRE AND ISLE OF WIGHT INTEGRATED CARE BOARD
S9B9J NHS SURREY AND SUSSEX INTEGRATED CARE BOARD
S0E4D NHS THAMES VALLEY INTEGRATED CARE BOARD
13 August 2026 09:30 AM
Re-run of 2025-26 data
Due to the 2025-26 MHSDS final submission window closing after the previous edition publication was released in May 2026, we have re-released the 2025-26 year’s data as part of this publication in order to reflect the final 2025-26 submissions.
Unfortunately due to the census 2021 data being unavailable for the legacy Frimley ICB area, the rate per 100,000 population measures specified above are also be available for the legacy Frimley Sub ICB (D4U1Y) and Frimley ICB (QNQ) within the re-released 2025-26 data.
13 August 2026 09:30 AM
HealthHarmonie Limited data submissions from April 2026 onwards
HealthHarmonie Limited (NO0) began to flow referrals with a primary reason for referral of suspected autism in April 2026.
This has driven an 11.4% increase in the total number of new suspected autism referrals in the month (ASD12) at national level, from 15,719 in March 2026 to 17,509 in June 2026. The ASD12 metric value for HealthHarmonie Limited (NO0) in June 2026 was 2,860.
HealthHarmonie Limited (NO0) are, however, yet to flow care contact data and this is reflected in their metric values for those metrics which depend on care contact data being present.
Users can gain some understanding of the potential impact using the provider-level measures for HealthHarmonie Limited (NO0) included in this publication.
13 August 2026 09:30 AM
The Owl Centre missing data submission for June 2026
The Owl Centre (J0Q5Y) did not make a timely June 2026 data submission.
As such, the number of patients with an open suspected autism referral (ASD16) submitted by the Owl Centre (J0Q5Y) is 22,900 for May 2026 and 0 for June 2026.
This has driven a 5.1% decrease in the number of patients with an open suspected autism referral (ASD16) at England level from 310,794 in May 2026 to 294,792 in June 2026.
13 August 2026 09:30 AM
Sub-ICB, ICB and Region breakdowns in legacy data files
In the May 2025 edition of this publication, we issued a notice informing users that we had identified an 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.
This issue is now almost entirely resolved. 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 August 2026 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
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 June 2026, there were 294,792 patients with an open referral for suspected autism. Of these, 256,017 (86.8%) had a referral that had been open at least 13 weeks.
First Appointments
In June 2026, 3.8% (9,833) 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 17,509 new referrals and 13,492 closed referrals in June 2026. This is an increase of 6.9% for new referrals and an increase of 23.8% for closed referrals compared to June 2025.
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 August 2026 9:31 am