Key Highlights
- Further data shows the amount spent on private ADHD services has more than tripled over three years. Experts have warned that assessments provided by private providers can be unreliable, pointing to cases in which patients have been harmed by poor continuity of care after private diagnoses. Demand for ADHD assessments has reached record levels as awareness of the condition has increased and NHS services have become increasingly stretched, with more than half a million people now waiting for an assessment. Half of people recently arrested by Met police may have undiagnosed ADHD, study findsRead moreLast month the health secretary, Wes Streeting, announced a review into the diagnosis of mental health conditions such as ADHD, amid concern over the numbers of people with such conditions claiming sickness benefits. Research shared with the Guardian shows spending on ADHD services is estimated to reach £314m by April 2026, more than double the year’s budget of £150m set aside for this area of healthcare. The figures, which cover 32 of England’s 42 integrated care boards (ICBs), raise concerns that other services could face cuts to offset the £164m overspend. Nineteen ICBs also provided data on how much of their ADHD budget went on private companies, showing the NHS’s increasing reliance on outsourcing.
- It showed spending had more than tripled in three years, from £16.3m in 2022-23 to £58m last year.
- This has prompted concern that companies are making millions from what critics say is an under-regulated market. Due to how the data is collected, it could include some spending for other neurodiversity conditions as well as ADHD. The chair of the all-party parliamentary group on ADHD, Jo Platt, said the findings showed services were “at breaking point” and that NHS costs had “soared while private providers profit from poorly regulated systems, leaving too many patients in limbo without proper oversight”. The research by the Centre for Health and the Public Interest (CHPI) found one company – recently bought by a private equity firm – had reported profit margins of 33% over the past two years, mainly from providing NHS services.
- Another 14 companies delivered NHS-funded ADHD assessments without being registered with the Care Quality Commission. A further 19 companies that provided £1.9m worth of neurodiversity services over three years had no NHS contract at all, meaning local health bodies cannot properly hold them to account. Many NHS adult ADHD services in England have stopped taking on new patients due to high demand, so some turn to private providers via the right-to-choose pathway.
- This pathway lets patients pick their provider, including private ones, so they can bypass long local waitlists and get help faster. The CHPI report warns that, for business investors, the right-to-choose system is particularly easy to access.
