Right to Choose ASD & ADHD Pathways

If you are based in England under the NHS you now have a legal right to choose your mental healthcare provider and your choice of mental healthcare team. This includes for referrals relating to Autism and ADHD assessment. This important right means that, for instance, should you decide the waiting time for your ADHD or ASD assessment is too long, then you can choose an alternative provider to suit you.

This service is offered through the NHS and is free.

Who can offer Right to Choose assessments?

There are a number of clinics throughout the UK that can offer Right to Choose ADHD and/or ASD assessments. To become a Right to Choose clinic provider, the clinic must supply the same service to the NHS somewhere in England. They cannot be a fully private clinic.

The provider’s website is usually a good place to start to find out if they offer the service you need.

ADHD UK has a list of providers for Right to Choose referrals for ADHD assessment.

For ASD, there is not one big list. Please do your own research for the clinic that best suits your needs. You may wish to start with:

Things to consider about Right to Choose

It is important to note that many of these clinics can offer diagnosis but may not be able to start you on medication.

This means that you may be able to obtain a diagnosis with the named clinics, but often you will need a local NHS referral should they find that you need to start medication to control your symptoms.

What is a Shared Care Agreement?

If your specialist starts you on medication to help manage ADHD, they will often suggest a “Shared Care Agreement” with your GP. The specialist is responsible for starting you on your medication and helping you find the right dose. Once you are on a stable dose, they can ask the GP if they can “share care”, by prescribing the medication on an ongoing basis. It remains the specialist’s job to review you and make sure the medication is still working well for you.

We cannot accept Shared Care Agreements with healthcare professionals who are not adequately qualified, such as pharmacists. We can generally accept Shared Care Agreements with consultant psychiatrists, so long as the monitoring requirements are safe and manageable for you as the patient, us as your GP surgery, and them as your specialist provider.

For this reason, it’s worth checking with your Right to Choose provider if you will be seen by a psychiatrist, or by a different type of healthcare professional.

When can you not use Right to Choose?

There are some restrictions on which patients are eligible for a Right to Choose assessment and the below is a list of the reasons you would not be eligible:

  • You need urgent or emergency treatment – this is often not relevant as there are rarely times when this type of referral is considered urgent, but is still worth noting here
  • You already receive care and treatment for the condition you are seeking an assessment for
  • The organisation or clinical team you’ve chosen does not provide the right care for your condition
  • You are a prisoner or on temporary release from prison
  • You are detained in prescribed accommodation such as a court, secure training centre, immigration removal centre or young offender’s institute
  • You are detained in a secure hospital setting
  • You are detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 (as amended in 2007)
  • You are a serving member of the armed forces

What happens when I have chosen my clinic?

For all Right to Choose referrals, the patient, or their family if a child, will need to research and select a clinic themselves, it is not something the GP can advise on.

Once you have chosen which clinic you would like to have your assessment with and obtained the relevant forms, please call our secretaries confirming who you have chosen, and forward any forms to our email address sxicb-wsx.pound_hill.reception@nhs.net. Please ensure any forms that are required to be completed by/for the patient are enclosed with this email together with the GP forms. This will enable us to process the referral efficiently.

How much quicker will Right to Choose be?

That depends on which clinic you choose and whether they can offer medication, should you need it. Currently, the local waiting times are up to 7 years. A general guide for Right to Choose referrals is that assessments can be in as little as 12 weeks and as long as 12 months, which is much quicker than the NHS alternatives.

If a clinic offers diagnosis but not medication, then you will need a further referral for post-diagnostic support. Unfortunately, this is not something that can be easily avoided as most medications suggested for these conditions are ones that GPs are not allowed to prescribe without the support of a specialist clinic under a Shared Care Agreement.

Why would I choose a Right to Choose referral if I cannot easily obtain medication that way?

Many patients feel a diagnosis would be enough to request further support / considerations from school or employers and some patients may not require medication for these conditions at all.

What if I have more questions not answered on this web page?

You may find this list of websites and resources useful to help you on your Right to Choose journey.

Information on ADHD:

  • ADHD UK: A charity offering free advice and information on ADHD and Right to Choose referrals
  • ADHD Foundation: The UK’s leading neurodiversity charity, offering services for those who live with ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, DCD, Dyscalculia, OCD, Tourette’s Syndrome and more
  • NHS Website
  • Mind: ADHD and mental health

Information on ASD