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Publication, Part of

Autism Statistics, October 2021 to September 2022

Experimental statistics,

Publication Date:
8 Dec 2022
Date Range:
01 Oct 2021 to 30 Sep 2022

Current Chapter

Autism Statistics, October 2021 to September 2022

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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 13:47 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.

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.

Impact of Cyber Incident on MHSDS data submissions

Although the impact on Performance June and July 2022 monthly data was quite limited, the impact on Performance August and September 2022 data is much more substantial. As such, national level breakdowns have been omitted for August and September 2022 data from all outputs that are part of this publication. It was not considered appropriate to publish national level Performance August and September 2022 data at present, given that these data are not an accurate reflection of activity for these months.

Data at Provider and Local Authority level data are, however, still included within this publication.  Comparisons between providers not impacted by the cyber incident are still valid, as are comparisons between Performance August and September 2022 data and that of previous months for any given non-cyber incident impacted provider.

We will continue to monitor this situation with regards to subsequent months’ publications. No changes to submission processes will be introduced while service providers are actively dealing with this issue.

Providers also have the opportunity to resubmit MHSDS data for any month between April 2022 and February 2023, up until the final 2022/23 multiple submission window model (MSWM) deadline in May 2023, and this should serve to further mitigate the issue. This will then feed into the 'End of Year Final' data made available shortly afterwards. 

It is expected that 'End of Year Final' data will include a complete set of breakdowns for every month of 2022/23, including national level data.

Breakdowns relating to commissioning structures as they existed prior to 1 July 2022 (CCG, STP, Region and Commissioning Region) are also currently omitted from this publication, although this is due to the derivations necessary to support reporting under the new commissioning structures not having been completed to date. These will be published as soon as we are able to do so.

We are aware that autism diagnosis activity also happens in the Community Services Dataset (CSDS) but currently the figures that are presented as part of this publication only include data from the Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS). 

Between October 2021 and July 2022, the number of patients with an open referral for suspect autism has increased from 93,600 to just over 125,000. The number receiving a first appointment within 13 weeks has also increased in that time from 6,900 to just under 9,000.

New and closed referrals for suspected autism

There were 8,076 new referrals to specialist mental health services for suspected autism and 5,289 referrals were closed in July 2022.

Patients with open Referrals

In July 2022 there were 125,109 patients with an open referral for suspected Autism. This is an increase of 34% compared with October 2021. Of the patients with an open referral, 105,626  had referrals which had been open for at least 13 weeks

Waiting time from referral to first care contact

Between October 2021 and July 2022, the number of patients with a referral for suspected autism receiving their first care contact within 13 weeks has been steadily rising from 6,928 to 8,973. This is an increase of 30%.

Latest 6 months

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

Metric Feb-22 Mar-22 Apr-22 May-22 Jun-22 Jul-22
ASD12 Number of new "suspected autism" referrals in the month 9,131 9,428 7,149 8,941 7,548 8,076
ASD13 Number of closed "suspected autism" referrals in the month 4,415 5,184 4,670 5,172 4,918 5,289
ASD16 Number of patients with an open "suspected autism" referral in the month 108,528 113,170 115,280 119,430 121,944 125,109
ASD16a Number of patients with an open "suspected autism" referral in the month that has been open for at least 13 weeks 88,279 91,829 94,545 99,527 103,397 105,626
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 7,762 8,086 8,245 8,614 8,850 8,973
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 8.792578 8.805497 8.720715 8.654938 8.559243 8.495068
ASD20 Number of patients which have an open "suspected autism" referral in the month receiving at least one care contact in the month 5,298 6,016 5,353 6,294 5,893 5,656
ASD21 Number of patients with an open "suspected autism" referral receiving an autism diagnosis in the month 485 560 476 518 409 483
ASD23 Number of patients with an open "suspected autism" referral receiving a Mental and Behavioural disorder diagnosis in the month that is not an autism diagnosis 85 83 92 72 69 60
ASD24 Number of patients with an open "suspected autism" referral receiving a non-Mental and Behavioural disorder diagnosis recorded in the month 57 49 28 59 89 30

Waiting time from referral to care contact dashboard

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Last edited: 20 July 2023 1:49 pm