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Publication, Part of

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

Methodology

Analytical approach

There is one main approach to autism waiting time statistics published here, contributing to an overall picture of the experience of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnostic pathways.

 

The analysis takes the latest record of all referrals where the reason for the referral is suspected autism. For each month in the reporting period, we look at whether the referral was new, open at any point or closed in the month.

Waiting time to care contact approach

For waiting times, we use the referrals for suspected autism which were open within the month. We then look at the date of the first attended care contact related to those referrals if one has occurred. The waiting time taken here is the time from initial referral to the first care contact.

 

As illustrated above, the waiting time (represented by the arrow) measured is the time between the initial referral date, coded as suspected autism, to the date of the first attended care contact (appointment) for that referral or end of the month where no contact had been made.

More detailed descriptions of the analysis undertaken can be found on the construction page of this publication, found here.


These statistics are based on the information collected from the Mental Health Services Dataset. Further detail on the information captured within the Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS) is available here.


Access the code used to create this report

From September 2023, the code used to create the outputs for this report is available on our NHS Digital GitHub webpage.

Click here to access the code


Last edited: 14 November 2024 1:16 pm