Choosing a Right to Choose ADHD provider

Providers differ on who they accept, whether they prescribe, whether they review you afterwards and how they assess. Those differences matter more than a waiting-time figure that will have changed by the time you read it.

The short version

Providers set their own inclusion and exclusion criteria on top of the legal rules.
Not every provider prescribes. NHS South West London ICB warns that some only offer an assessment or diagnosis.
Age ranges differ sharply between providers, and a provider that takes adults may not take children.
Advertised wait times move, and sit behind integrated care board activity caps. Treat them as the weakest input to your decision.

Once your GP agrees to refer, the decision in front of you looks like a list of names with waiting times next to them. That framing is the trap. The waiting time is the number most likely to have changed by next month, and the differences that will follow you for years are further down the page.

Four questions that actually separate providers

Who do they accept? Age ranges vary a lot. ADHD 360 states that it can only accept Right to Choose referrals for children aged 8 plus, and adults 16 years and older. Psychiatry-UK offers ADHD assessments for adults aged 18 and over under the scheme.
Do they prescribe? NHS South West London ICB warns that not all Right to Choose providers can start medicine or prescribe it, and that some only offer an assessment or diagnosis.
What happens after the diagnosis? NHS West and North London ICB notes that if the provider offers ongoing care you receive it from them, and that if it does not, your GP will discuss next steps with you, which may include joining the NHS waiting list for treatment or support.
How do they assess? NHS West and North London ICB notes that some providers only offer online assessments, and NHS South West London ICB tells patients to understand before choosing whether the assessment is online or remote or in person.

Exclusion criteria are real and they are not in the regulations

The legal exclusions in regulations 40 and 41 are narrow. The provider's own rules are not, and they are where most people find out they cannot use a particular service.

NHS South West London ICB puts it plainly. Although anyone registered with a GP in England is legally entitled to access Right To Choose, each provider will have their own inclusion and exclusion criteria. It gives examples, saying this may mean you are not eligible to access an assessment from a particular provider based on certain pre-existing needs, for example having a moderate to severe learning disability or an addiction.

Ask directly, before the referral is sent, whether the provider accepts referrals for someone with your history. A referral sent to a provider that will decline it costs you the time it takes to find out.

Why the advertised waiting time is the weakest signal

Every major provider publishes a waiting-times page, and those pages are the only current answer for that provider, which is precisely why nothing useful can be printed here instead. What can be said is why they move.

ADHD 360 explains the mechanism on its own page. Many NHS integrated care boards across England are facing significant demand for ADHD services, this demand is higher than NHS resources available, and ADHD 360 is therefore having to manage demand and keep services within locally agreed ICB budgets, which means patients who may have been seen sooner will have to wait longer.

Psychiatry-UK describes the same pressure from a different angle, saying it continues to experience unprecedented demand for referrals for its Right to Choose adult ADHD service, which has inevitably created waiting lists for assessment and treatment, and adding that if you are referred to its titration service there will be a delay between assessment and starting treatment.

So a provider's advertised wait is a function of its contract with your integrated care board as much as its own capacity, and two people choosing the same provider from different parts of England are not necessarily joining the same queue.

Providers that publish a Right to Choose ADHD service

That table deliberately contains no waiting-time figures. None was captured as a dated figure, every one of them moves, and a stale number attached to a named provider reads as a promise. The providers' own pages are linked below and they are the place to look.

This is not a recommendation of any of the three, and this site has no commercial relationship with them. There are more Right to Choose providers than these: NHS Black Country ICB, for example, publishes a table of providers with a column for each of adult ADHD, adult autism, children's ADHD and children's autism, which is the clearest public illustration that a provider can be an option for one group and not another.

What three national providers state on their own pages, checked 15 September 2026
Provider	Who it states it accepts	What it states about demand
Psychiatry-UK	ADHD assessments for adults aged 18 and over under the NHS Right to Choose scheme	Unprecedented demand for referrals, which has inevitably created waiting lists for assessment and treatment. A separate delay between assessment and titration.
ADHD 360	Children aged 8 plus and adults aged 16 and over	Managing demand to keep services within locally agreed ICB budgets, so some patients wait longer. Publishes a guide to average waiting times by ICB.
Clinical Partners	Right to Choose ADHD assessments for adults, and for children aged five and above	Maintains its own Right to Choose wait times and updates page.

Ask the shared care question early

NHS West and North London ICB advises confirming whether your GP would accept the provider's notice for shared care should you be prescribed medication. That answer shapes who writes your prescriptions for years, and it is much easier to get before the referral than after the diagnosis.

Questions people ask about this

How do I compare Right to Choose ADHD providers?

Compare who they accept, whether they prescribe and titrate, what they offer after a diagnosis, and how the assessment is delivered. NHS South West London ICB warns that not all providers can start or prescribe medicine and that some only offer an assessment or diagnosis. Advertised waiting times move constantly and sit behind integrated care board activity caps, so treat them as the least reliable input.

Can a provider refuse my Right to Choose referral?

Yes. NHS South West London ICB states that each provider has its own inclusion and exclusion criteria, giving a moderate to severe learning disability or an addiction as examples of pre-existing needs that can make a particular provider unsuitable. Ask before the referral is sent whether the provider accepts referrals for someone in your situation.

Which Right to Choose provider has the shortest wait?

Nobody can answer that from outside. Provider waiting times change, and they depend on the activity plan agreed between that provider and your own integrated care board, so the same provider can mean different waits in different parts of England. Each major provider publishes its own wait-times page, and that is the only current answer.