Students fast tracked for autism diagnosis while children wait years

Telegraph

3 days ago

University students will be fast-tracked for autism diagnosis while children continue to wait years, The Telegraph can reveal.
Students will be taken out of the regular local services amid surging referrals for young people, according to a trial at University College London starting in the upcoming academic year.
Those still on the current waiting lists will still have to wait several years while students use the dedicated service.
The NHS is providing £80,000 in funding to UCL, which is setting up a first-of-its-kind autism clinic to focus solely on students.
The university-specific NHS clinic will investigate if the approach improves wait list times for both the general population as well as students during the course of the project from October 2025 until November 2026.
Officials have said university students pose a 'specific challenge to the dynamics of adult waiting lists' because students can spend longer waiting for an appointment than the length of a degree. This serves to inflate waiting times for the general public in the neighbouring area as well as failing the student, officials say.
There has been a 15-fold increase in the number of 18-24 year-olds seeking an appointment for an autism diagnosis since 2019, official data show.
Demand for specialist clinics has soared since the Covid-19 pandemic as a result of increased awareness of autism symptoms, often driven by social media.
The huge waiting lists mean people often wait several years to be seen by a clinician and get a diagnosis. This overburdening of autism services is forcing individuals with profound autism who require 24/7 care, including non verbal people, to suffer serious delays to their treatment with lifelong ramifications.
In the contract between the NHS England and UCL, officials wrote: 'Removing student populations from local specialist autism teams could positively impact the waiting list.'
A recent report found that almost a third of self-harm and suicide cases among university students involve neurodiverse individuals, including those with ADHD and autism
Autism waiting lists have ballooned in recent years for all ages but most noticeably in under-25s.
Telegraph analysis reveals that there were more than a quarter of a million people awaiting an appointment for a diagnosis in March 2025, the most recent available data, up from 17,400 in April 2019.
Almost 75,000 children under 10 are on the waiting list, up more than 12-fold in six years from less than 6,000.
There are almost 91,000 people between 10 and 25 currently awaiting a referral, up 12-fold from 7,700 pre-pandemic.
In contrast, there are just 735 over-65s on the waiting list. However, this is up more than 11-fold itself from just 65 in 2019.
An NHS England spokesman told The Telegraph: 'Backed by NHS funding, University College London is trialling a first-of-its-kind dedicated autism clinic and assessment referral pathway for university students.
'The aim is to test whether separating students from the mainstream waiting list leads to faster diagnosis and better support during the often-challenging transition to higher education.
'The project will also identify ways to improve how autistic and neurodivergent students are supported during university, as well as looking for ways to improve NHS services for autistic people more generally.'
The system will only be open to UCL students as part of the pilot programme.
A UCL spokesman said: 'The project has a number of aims including to pilot and evaluate a referral pathway for UCL students, so that if they suspect they are autistic, they can get a timely assessment at UCL.
'Given current waiting lists in NHS adult services, some people needing autism assessment at university cannot get their assessment until after they graduate.'
Other goals of the project are to improve support that can be offered to autistic students and also improve training to clinicians.
The UCL spokesman added: 'It is intended that this research will generate a range of new ideas for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of autism services, that can be adopted in settings across the country, such as NHS autism assessment clinics and general mental health services.
'This has the potential to contribute to improvements in the quality of services and waiting times nationally.'
'Diagnosis can be lifesaving'
Mel Merritt, the head of policy and campaigns at the National Autistic Society, said: 'This trial is an opportunity to provide faster diagnosis and better support for autistic university students.
'An autism diagnosis is often life changing and can be lifesaving. University is an important transitional time for many young autistic people and it's important they receive a timely diagnosis so they can get the right support.
'Nine in 10 people wait longer than the recommended 13 weeks and the average wait time is more than 14 months, with many waiting years.
'Without a diagnosis, avoidable crises can develop and, while it shouldn't be the case, often support isn't provided until someone has a diagnosis. At school, this means children and young people miss out on years of their education.
'The Government must provide urgent funding for diagnosis services across the country to end this worsening crisis, and make sure autistic people and their families get the support they need.'