AQW 25847/17-22


Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry


Tabled Date: 16/11/2021
Answered On Date: 25/11/2021
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail the average waiting time, after referral, for a child to receive an autism assessment by an educational psychologist, broken down by constituency.


Answer:
The number of individuals waiting for an autism assessment in each Health and Social Care Trust, by length of time, is set out in Table 1.
The Department of Health does not hold this information broken down by the participants of the assessment panel nor broken down by constituency.
Table 1: Waiting times, after referral, for a child to receive an autism assessment/diagnosis by Health and Social Care (HSC) Trust as at 30th September 2021.
HSC Trust
Length of time waiting (weeks)
0-13
>13-26
>26-52
>52
Total
Belfast
269
247
425
1,079
2,020
Northern
385
497
744
587
2,213
South Eastern*
79
0
0
0
79
Southern
146
0
0
0
146
Western
178
192
315
542
1,227
Northern Ireland
1,057
936
1,484
2,208
5,685
Source: Monthly ‘Children’s Autism Waiting Times’ returns from HSC Trusts. Average waiting times are not collected.
*SEHSCT has different pathways for this service hence the variation from that in the other four HSC Trusts.