Publication, Part of Autism Waiting Time Statistics
Autism Statistics, October 2023 to September 2024
Experimental statistics, Official statistics in development
Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS) Version 6
The April 2024 to September 2024 reporting period figures are the second to be published using MHSDS v6. The implementation of MHSDS v6 includes a fundamental restructuring of the recording of key areas, although none that impact the Autism Waiting Times publication.
Full details of the major methodological changes made for this publication can be found here.
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.
14 November 2024 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.
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.
Revised data submission windows
To provide more timely statistics, revised data submission windows have been introduced recently. This has helped support a move to reporting data one month, rather than two months, following activity as has historically been the case.
Editions of the series from the April 2023 to March 2024 onwards are affected by this change.
Methodological Change
From the September 2023 publication onwards, the methodology used for the specified measures below within the Autism Waiting Time Statistics will include the following change.
We have changed the way that a referral for ‘suspected autism’ is counted as open. Previously, open and close dates in the latest submitted version of a referral were used to determine which months the referral is counted as open. Data submitted to MHSDS includes a row of data for each referral for each unique month that the referral is open. After consulting with providers and carrying out some exploratory analysis into how effective providers are at closing referrals in the system and looking into why referrals remain open for a long period of time, we have agreed to implement a change in the logic of how we calculate open referrals in the publication. The new methodology will only count the referrals as open in the months 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 definitely active and we can be confident that this number of open referrals provides a more accurate view of this.
For more information on the scope of the Methodological Change please follow this link.
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.
Key Facts
Referral Waiting Times
In September 2024, there were 204,876 patients with an open referral for suspected autism. Of these, 183,200 (89.4%) had a referral that had been open at least 13 weeks.
First Appointments
In September 2024, 4.9% (8,928) 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 8,853 new referrals and 7,267 closed referrals in September 2024. This is a decrease of 24.6% for new referrals and a decrease of 1.9% for closed referrals compared to September 2023.
Waiting time from referral to care contact dashboard
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Resources
Last edited: 14 November 2024 1:16 pm