AQW 40244/22-27


Miss Nuala McAllister
Alliance Party
North Belfast


Tabled Date: 10/02/2026
Answered On Date: 14/05/2026
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister of Health for an update on the waiting lists for children awaiting an ASD (i) diagnosis; and (ii) first time appointment. in each Health and Social Care Trust.


Answer:
As of the end of November 2025, the number of children and young people waiting for an autism assessment and the length of the wait for first appointment across HSC Trusts is as follows:
Number of children and young people waiting for autism assessment broken down by HSC Trust*
HSC Trust 
Number of CYP Waiting
BHSCT 
4,975
NHSCT 
5,250
SEHSCT 
2,620
SHSCT 
1,934
WHSCT 
2,873
*As part of the Encompass roll-out, all Health and Social Care Trusts have now gone live with a new electronic patient record system. As these Trusts continue to transition to completely digitised records, their data is undergoing extensive validation. Until this process is complete, there may be gaps in the data they are able to submit for reporting purposes. The information provided is sourced from Trust manual returns and is not official statistics.
Information on wait to first appointment is not available