Getting your child an ADHD assessment: a guide for parents

You've watched your child struggle, you've had the conversation with their teacher more than once, and now you're trying to work out how to get a child ADHD assessment in the UK without waiting years for it. This guide breaks down your options.

There isn't one NHS pathway for a child ADHD assessment. There are several, and which one applies to your child depends on where you live and sometimes their age. Knowing the shape of it in advance saves you a lot of confused phone calls.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) handle neurodevelopmental assessments in many areas, particularly for older children and where there's a mental health or emotional wellbeing element alongside the possible ADHD. Some areas route ADHD assessments through a specific CAMHS neurodevelopmental team.

Community paediatrics is the other main route, especially for younger children or where a learning disability is also suspected. A community paediatrician is a children's doctor who specialises in development, not a GP and not a psychiatrist. In some areas this is the only route in; in others it works alongside CAMHS depending on age or complexity.

School referrals matter more than most parents expect. In a lot of areas, a referral won't be accepted at all without evidence from school: things like a completed Conners or SNAP questionnaire from a teacher, examples of a "graduated response" (adjustments tried, and the effect they had), or a note from the SENCO. If your area works this way, going to your GP alone may just bounce back with "please get school involved first." Ask your GP directly whether your local pathway requires school input, and if so, book a meeting with the SENCO early rather than after a rejection.

Whichever route applies locally, most areas in England have a waiting list measured in months at the shorter end and years at the longer end before your child's referral leads to a diagnosis. That's exactly why Right to Choose is worth understanding properly, which is what the next section covers.

This is the single most useful thing to understand in this whole guide, and it applies to children exactly as it applies to adults.

Under the NHS Constitution and the NHS Choice Framework, if your GP agrees your child needs an ADHD assessment, you have a legal right to ask for the referral to go to a specific NHS-funded provider of your choosing, rather than automatically to your local, often overstretched, service. It's a formal patient right that's existed since 2018, and it applies in England.

In practice, this means: instead of joining your local CAMHS or community paediatrics list and waiting however long that takes, you name an approved independent provider that holds an NHS contract, and your child's assessment is carried out by them, funded by the NHS, at no cost to you. Waits vary by provider and can range from a few weeks up to around 18 months, so it's worth checking a provider's current published wait time before naming them. Some ICBs (Integrated Care Boards) have also paused or capped new Right to Choose referrals to manage budgets, so ask your GP or the provider directly whether your area is affected.

A few things worth knowing before you go in:

What to say at the appointment: "I'd like to exercise our NHS Right to Choose and be referred to [named provider] for my child's ADHD assessment. This is a legal right under the NHS Constitution and the NHS Choice Framework." Bring the provider's name and, if you have it, their referral form or process printed out, since some GPs find it easier to action a referral when the paperwork is in front of them.

If your GP is hesitant, ask when they expect to action it and get that in writing by email, rather than leaving it as "we'll look into it." A firm date is far easier to follow up on than a vague intention.

Some families choose to go private, either because they want to move faster than even Right to Choose allows, or because they want a specific clinician, or because their region's NHS waiting list is longer than they can reasonably manage.

A full private child ADHD assessment typically costs somewhere in the region of £700 to £1,800, though prices vary by clinic and region, and combined ADHD and autism assessments (common, since the two frequently overlap) tend to run higher, often £900 to £3,000 or more, particularly where the assessment includes school observation. Waits are usually much shorter than NHS routes, often a matter of weeks.

A private child assessment is more involved than an adult one. Expect it to include input from you, from your child, and from school, usually via structured questionnaires completed by a teacher. The assessing clinician is typically a child and adolescent psychiatrist or a specialist paediatrician, not an adult ADHD specialist, since children need a different diagnostic lens.

Before booking anywhere, ask for a fixed-price quote that clearly states what's included: the assessment itself, the written report, and any follow-up appointment. It's worth also asking whether the report will be suitable for school and, if relevant, an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) application, since a well-structured report can do double duty here.

One thing to be aware of if medication is later recommended: your GP is not obliged to take over prescribing after a private diagnosis (this is known as "shared care"), and GP practices can decline this on clinical or capacity grounds; guidance from the GMC confirms GPs cannot be compelled to enter into a shared care agreement. This is a fairly common issue, so if ongoing prescribing matters to you, ask the private provider how they typically handle this, and consider asking your own GP practice about their shared care policy, before you commit to an assessment.

A private diagnosis made by a suitably qualified clinician is clinically valid, and schools and local authorities have no legal basis to reject it simply because it wasn't done on the NHS. That said, "valid" doesn't automatically mean every consequence is guaranteed: school support depends on your child's observed needs rather than the diagnosis alone, and continued NHS prescribing depends on a shared care agreement being in place (see above). A clear, detailed report matters more than which route produced it, but it's worth being realistic about what a private diagnosis does and doesn't unlock automatically.

Most of the friction parents describe comes from patchy local rules and long waits, not malice, and everyone in the system, GPs included, is often working around the same constraints you are. That said, you're entitled to push, clearly and calmly, and it usually helps.

At the GP. Write down concrete examples across more than one setting, home and school ideally, rather than "he's a bit much sometimes." If you've already got school evidence, bring it. If your GP says they can't refer without school involvement, ask them to say so in writing so you know exactly what's needed next.

With school. Ask directly whether the school can refer, whether they need to be involved before a GP referral will be accepted locally, and what a "graduated response" needs to look like in your area before a referral is considered. If school seems reluctant, ask for this in writing too. A written record protects you if you need to escalate later, and it's a completely reasonable thing to request.

You don't need a diagnosis for support to start. Schools can and should make reasonable adjustments based on observed need, not a formal label. If your child is struggling, you can ask in writing for the school to consider what's called a graduated response or, further along, an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment, independent of where the medical assessment has got to.

If you feel stuck. Ask your GP practice or ICB (Integrated Care Board) for their written referral criteria for your area, so you're not guessing. If a referral is refused, ask for the reason in writing, since procedural or timeline errors in a rejection letter are a legitimate basis for a follow-up request.