The ADHD crisis in England: What must change and what you can do

The structural challenges facing the UK’s ADHD services

Problems aren’t limited to long wait times. The NHS is going through major restructuring changes that ICB leaders claim are bigger barriers to service improvement than either funding or demand.

Urgent and systematic changes are needed to transform the UK’s ADHD care, helping reduce delays, clear backlogs, and meet patient expectations. However, any solutions must be viable against this backdrop of NHS reorganization, changing responsibilities, and fluctuating staffing.

So, what can you do?

Addressing England’s ADHD diagnosis crisis:
Actions for clinicians, policymakers, advocates, and educators

Change on the scale required is rarely easy. But we believe improving outcomes for ADHD patients in the UK is achievable. Following the evidence-based ADHD Taskforce recommendations will help. So too could a more proactive approach from all of us who work in ADHD. 

What can policymakers do?

Systemic change often requires a high-level hook that can be used as a platform for improvement. We’ve already seen how this can happen in the ADHD space. The NICE recommendation to incorporate an objective ADHD test as an assessment option is a strong example. By discussing the merits of objective data for ADHD diagnosis in HealthTech guidance 729, funding commissioners, clinicians, and advocates have strategic support for adding the technology to workflows.

Policymakers can make an impact, even in the short term, by focusing on practical solutions that make the best use of existing, readily available resources. Digital technology is a strong case in point and should be part of policy discussions. Objective technology helps clinicians to gather important symptom information early in the model, supporting a needs-based approach and more efficient use of service capacity.

Additionally, you can commission objective assessment technologies, fund digital-first pilot workflows, and embed guidance in policy documents to support the use of ADHD tools across local services.

What can you do as a clinician or GP to help UK ADHD patients?

While national policy-led change can be slow, you can make local improvements more rapidly. Digital ADHD tests can help you gather objective data quickly, reducing the time required for each assessment. Offering remote appointments can help you see more patients⁷ and further help reduce backlogs.

Implementing hybrid models of ADHD care and digital-first ADHD models can help make care more accessible and flexible for patients, while also reducing clinics’ admin burden⁸. You can then communicate examples of effective workflows to policymakers as models for replication and wider rollout.

Triaging how patients are seen can also help maximize efficiency for you and your team. At North Staffordshire Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), nurse practitioners now use a digital ADHD test to support them in completing ADHD assessments. Previously, all patients would have been referred to specialist services. Under the new model, wait times have reduced from around 18 months to 12 weeks. The workflow is more consistent, as all patients are assessed using the same methodology. Referrals are saved for the most complex cases, maximizing staff time efficiency across the model.

Amid growing demand, there is an urgent need to move beyond one-size-fits-all assessment models. Objective technology has a critical role to play in identifying individuals most at risk and supporting more informed triage decisions. This will help clinicians determine when a full diagnostic assessment is necessary and when alternative approaches may be more appropriate. This can also help drive proportionate care, which is truly needs-based and is tailored to the individual and responsive to how their symptoms present across different settings.

Making these efficiency changes to your service or clinic has the potential to improve patient outcomes in your area, without long lead-in times for development or policy shift.

A role for educators

Around 618,000 children and young people (aged 0-17) in England⁹are estimated to have ADHD. Education settings are understandably critical spaces for early identification of symptoms. Helping children get access to treatment and support from a young age is key, and educators have a vital role. Teachers are often asked to contribute to rating scale assessments during diagnosis. They will also be involved in implementing Individual Education Plans (IEPs) for students with ADHD.

Despite the important role of educators, there are significant knowledge gaps around ADHD. An Open University study found accurate ADHD knowledge to be low among teachers, and ‘negative attitudes’ to ADHD more common than ‘positive attitudes’¹⁰.

As clinicians, you can support educators to learn more about ADHD and even develop school-based ADHD screening¹¹pathways. Making classrooms more ADHD-friendly is also an important goal. If you work with educators, you may wish to recommend this printable checklist. It’s designed to help the teachers of ADHD students, so that they can stay focused, engaged, and successful.

There is also a wider role for education in ADHD care. A 2025 survey of ADHD patients found that 64% of them said they received either no information or poor information while waiting for a diagnosis¹². It doesn’t have to be this way.

While people are on waiting lists for ADHD, we can provide them with reliable, medically grounded psychoeducation on ADHD symptoms and examples of non-pharmacological lifestyle adaptations that can help. If we don’t, those same patients will either feel unsupported or turn to less reliable information sources like social media for answers.

The importance of ADHD advocacy

Finally, there is a strong role for patient advocacy. ADHD advocates can set up the support systems that can make a real difference to ADHD patients’ lives. Peer support networks and sharing reliable information sources can help plug some of the resource gaps in formal health systems.

Advocates are also well-placed to highlight the impact of undiagnosed and later-life ADHD diagnoses on adults. It’s estimated that fewer than 1 in 5 adults who have ADHD are diagnosed or receiving treatment¹³. These are adults whose symptoms were often missed during childhood, and who may have developed coping strategies that mask symptoms in adulthood.

Demand for adult ADHD assessment is high. In December 2025, 11,465 people over the age of 18 were newly referred for a potential ADHD assessment¹. This figure was up nearly 37% from the same period the previous year.

Adult ADHD assessments are complex. A lack of developmental history, missing school records, and difficulties in recalling or self-assessing symptom presentation can make diagnosis challenging. Additionally, while awareness of adult ADHD has improved, many GPs still report having low confidence, limited knowledge, and often misconceptions about ADHD¹⁴.

Advocates can highlight the need for better adult ADHD care, including the use of ADHD tools to support testing and treatment. Using an objective test can increase clinician confidence in diagnostic decision-making without compromising accuracy.7 Digital ADHD tests can also help assess symptom change after commencing medication¹⁵. Patient support groups can advocate for the wider implementation of these standardized and consistent approaches to adult ADHD assessment and treatment using objective testing.