What an ADHD assessment costs in England

Under Right to Choose the NHS pays the provider and you pay nothing for the assessment. The costs that remain are prescription charges, and the much larger cost of the route you take if this pathway is closed to you.

The short version

Under Right to Choose the assessment is paid for by the NHS. NHS West and North London ICB describes the pathway as providers, NHS and private, paid for by the NHS.
ADHD prescriptions are covered too, including the first prescriptions used to stabilise medication, and ongoing ones if your GP will not take over prescribing.
What you still pay is the English prescription charge of £9.90 per item, or a prepayment certificate at £32.05 for three months or £114.50 for twelve.
This site does not publish a private assessment price, because no price it printed would be the price you were quoted. How we source figures.

The money question about an ADHD assessment has a surprisingly short answer and a long footnote. The short answer is that on the Right to Choose pathway you do not pay for the assessment. The footnote is everything that happens afterwards, and everything that happens if that pathway is not open to you.

The assessment itself

NHS West and North London ICB describes the pathway plainly. If your GP agrees that an ADHD or autism assessment is appropriate for you or your child, with Right to Choose you can access a wider range of provider organisations, NHS and private, paid for by the NHS.

That is the whole of it. The provider invoices the integrated care board. There is no co-payment, no gap fee and no upgrade tier. If a provider asks you for money for an assessment it is describing its private service, which is a different product with a different price and different consequences.

There is no published national price for what the NHS pays a provider for an ADHD assessment, and this site does not state one. That number exists inside contracts between commissioners and providers, and it is not something you can look up.

What you pay after a diagnosis

Medication is the recurring cost, and the coverage is broader than most people assume. NHS South West London ICB states that the cost of any ADHD prescriptions, from both NHS and private organisations, will be covered by Right to Choose, that this includes first prescriptions to help stabilise medication, and that it also covers ongoing prescriptions if a GP does not agree to take over prescribing through a shared care protocol.

What that covers is the drug supply arrangement, not the counter charge. The National Health Service sets a single prescription charge of £9.90 per item in England, checked on 15 September 2026, and that fee applies to each item rather than each prescription. As the NHS puts it, if your prescription has 3 medicines on it you will have to pay the prescription charge 3 times.

If you are exempt from prescription charges, none of this applies to you. If you are not, and you expect to collect an ADHD medicine every month, the arithmetic usually points at a prepayment certificate.

NHS prescription charge, England

£9.90

per item

NHS, NHS prescription charges. Checked 15 September 2026.

12-month prescription prepayment certificate

£114.50

covers unlimited NHS prescriptions for 12 months

NHS, Save money with a prescription prepayment certificate. Checked 15 September 2026. The NHS says this saves money if you need more than 11 prescribed items in a year.

The National Health Service publishes three prepayment options and states the break-even for each in its own words. A 3-month PPC costs £32.05 and will save you money if you need more than 3 prescribed items in 3 months. A 12-month PPC costs £114.50 and will save you money if you need more than 11 prescribed items in a year. There is a separate hormone replacement therapy certificate at £19.80, which is not relevant to ADHD medicine but sits on the same page and is easy to misread.

One thing the certificate does not do is change what is prescribed or how often. If your medicine is being titrated, the number of items you collect in a quarter can be higher than a steady-state month suggests.

Why there is no private price on this page

The question this page is usually found by is what an ADHD assessment costs privately. There is a reason the figure is missing.

Private assessment prices are set by each clinic, vary by whether the assessment covers a child or an adult, vary again by whether titration and follow-up are included, and change. A single national figure published here would be an average of quotes the site never saw, attached to a service specification it never read. It would also be the most quotable sentence on the page, which means it would travel further than its caveats.

So this site does not estimate one. If you are pricing a private assessment, get the quote from the provider in writing, and make sure the quote says in terms whether it includes a diagnosis report, a titration period, and ongoing prescribing.

The expensive question is not the assessment fee

What costs money over a lifetime is the follow-on care. A private assessment that ends at the report leaves you paying for prescriptions privately if your GP declines shared care, and NHS West and North London ICB warns that the NHS may not pay for private prescription costs. Ask about the prescribing arrangement before you ask about the price.

Going private and coming back

People often assume a private assessment can be converted into NHS care later. Sometimes it can, and it is not automatic.

NHS South West London ICB sets out what to expect. To join an NHS service for assessment, or to transfer mid-treatment to the NHS, you or your child will generally join at the beginning of the waiting list, and a new assessment may also be required even if one has already been carried out by a private provider.

That is worth pricing in before you pay. A private assessment buys you an answer. It does not buy you a place in the NHS queue, and it may not be accepted as the assessment when you get there.

Annual reviews, and the cost of a provider stopping

One more cost sits further out, and it is the one nobody plans for. NHS South West London ICB notes that if your provider stops offering annual reviews, you will need a new assessment with a new provider, that you can go through the NHS or Right to Choose or pay privately for one, and that either way you will go on a waiting list.

So the ongoing relationship with a provider is part of what you are choosing, not an afterthought once the diagnosis is made. A provider that only assesses is cheaper for the system and more expensive for you later.

Questions people ask about this

Do I pay anything for an ADHD assessment under Right to Choose?

No. The assessment is paid for by the NHS. NHS West and North London ICB describes Right to Choose as access to a wider range of provider organisations, NHS and private, paid for by the NHS. If a provider quotes you a fee, it is offering its private service, which is a separate arrangement.

Does Right to Choose cover ADHD medication?

NHS South West London ICB states that the cost of any ADHD prescriptions, from both NHS and private organisations, will be covered by Right to Choose, including first prescriptions to help stabilise medication and ongoing prescriptions if a GP does not agree to take over prescribing through a shared care protocol. You still pay the ordinary English prescription charge at the pharmacy counter unless you are exempt.

How much is an NHS prescription for ADHD medication?

The NHS prescription charge in England is £9.90 per item, checked on 15 September 2026, and it applies to each item rather than each prescription. A 3-month prepayment certificate costs £32.05 and a 12-month certificate costs £114.50. The NHS says the 12-month certificate saves money if you need more than 11 prescribed items in a year.

How much does a private ADHD assessment cost?

This site does not publish a figure, because prices are set per clinic and per service specification and any single national number would be misleading. Get a written quote from the provider and check whether it includes the diagnostic report, a titration period and ongoing prescribing, since those are where the real difference in cost sits.