Publication, Part of Autism Waiting Time Statistics
Autism Statistics, October 2025 to September 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 second in the series to reflect these changes. All activity is presented on the basis of in year geography mappings.
Further information is available here
12 November 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 September 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
12 November 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 21.0% increase in the total number of new suspected autism referrals in the month (ASD12) at national level, from 15,719 in March 2026 to 19,025 in September 2026. The ASD12 metric value for HealthHarmonie Limited (NO0) in September 2026 was 3,785.
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.
12 November 2026 09:30 AM
Evolve Psychology Services Ltd missing data submission for September 2026
Evolve Psychology Services Ltd (D4L3K) did not make a timely September 2026 data submission.
As such, the number of patients with an open suspected autism referral (ASD16) submitted by Evolve Psychology Services Ltd (D4L3K) is 10,605 for August 2026 and 0 for September 2026.
In spite of this, the number of patients with an open suspected autism referral (ASD16) at England level still increased by 2.7% from 327,871 in August 2026 to 336,764 in September 2026.
12 November 2026 09:30 AM
Psych-UK Limited (DQT) step change in ASD13 value between August 2026 and September 2026
There has been a step change in the ASD13 (Number of closed suspected autism referrals in the month) metric value for Psych-UK Limited (DQT), from 1,660 in August 2026 to 10,475 in September 2026.
This has driven a 72.1% increase in the national level ASD13 value, from 12,767 in August 2026 to 21,974 in September 2026.
12 November 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.
12 November 2026 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.
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.
Revised approach to production of data for completed financial years
Up to and including the August 2025 publication, csv outputs were recreated in respect of all completed financial years, as well as for the financial year currently in progress, using the latest available multiple submission window model (MSWM) data submitted to MHSDS.
As of the November 2025 publication onwards, the csv outputs in respect of completed financial years will not be recreated. The latest available MSWM data from MHSDS will be used to create csv files in respect of the financial year currently in progress only.
This aligns with the production processes for the main MHSDS monthly publication.
It may occasionally be necessary to make exceptions to this however. For example, in the November 2025 publication, the 2022-23 has been refreshed to resolve an outstanding issue relating to high levels of unknowns within sub-national data.
Last edited: 12 November 2026 9:33 am