AQW 31787/22-27
Mrs Deborah Erskine
Democratic Unionist Party
Fermanagh and South Tyrone
Tabled Date: 23/09/2025
Answered On Date: 08/10/2025
Priority Written: No
Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail the number of children currently waiting for an autism spectrum disorder assessment.
Answer:
On the 22 May my Department published the Children and Young People’s Emotional Health and Wellbeing Framework for public consultation. The Framework promotes a person centred and needs based care pathway that will allow for a holistic early offer of support to help with presenting needs. Health and Social Care Trusts are reviewing and refining assessment pathways to reduce clinical time per case while maintaining quality. Assessments are aligned with NICE guidelines to ensure consistency and clinical robustness. Plans are ongoing with PHA and Child Health colleagues to develop regionally defined neurodevelopmental pathways. This will allow earlier intervention needs to be assessed and help define service capacity requirements. To promote a specific focus on Adult pathways, a dedicated project lead for Adult Autism was appointed in March 2025. Since recruitment, they have been working with Trusts to map current diagnostic and support pathways, and hosted a regional workshop on 2nd July to explore steps that can be taken to manage waiting lists and reduce variation within existing resources. Department officials meet monthly with HSC Trusts Heads of ASD Services. These meetings are structured separately for adult and children’s services and provide a forum where professionals can participate in regional discussion to explore demand-capacity challenges and consider opportunities for standardised pathways. Services are observed to be adapting to increasing complexity in referrals characterised by more children presenting with comorbid ASD and ADHD and requiring more intensive assessment accordingly. There has been significant increase in the number of children referred for an Autism Diagnostic Assessment and unfortunately Autism Services do not currently have the capacity to meet this need. Additional investment in autism services is required to reduce waiting lists. I acknowledge that the current waiting times for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are lengthy and growing for children across Northern Ireland. This situation has arisen due to several factors, including funding that falls short of objectively assessed need and previous missed opportunities to reform health and social care delivery. I am committed to addressing this, subject to available funding. The table below details the number of children waiting for an ASD assessment. Number of Children waiting for Autism Diagnostic Assessment | HSC Trust | Children waiting | Belfast | 4,539 | Northern | 5,923 | South Eastern | 2,545 | Southern | 1,681 | Western | 2,517 | Total | 17,205 |
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