The NHS Right to Choose pathway for an ADHD assessment in England, explained without the spin

Right to Choose is a duty on NHS commissioners in England, set out in regulation 39 of the National Health Service Commissioning Board and Clinical Commissioning Groups (Responsibilities and Standing Rules) Regulations 2012. When your GP makes a non-urgent referral, that duty says you must be offered a choice of any clinically appropriate provider holding a qualifying NHS contract, and a choice of the team that will lead your care.

Read that sentence again for what it does not say. It does not oblige your GP to refer you. Regulation 39(6) makes a provider clinically appropriate only in the opinion of the person making the referral, and NHS South West London ICB puts the same point plainly in its own step list: your GP will decide whether a referral for an assessment is appropriate. The choice is real, and it only opens once that decision has gone your way.

It also does not say you will be seen quickly. The same ICB answers the question directly: Right To Choose does not guarantee quicker assessment. Providers are funded through Indicative Activity Plans agreed with each integrated care board, so a provider can accept your referral in March and still be working through its list in December.