Frequently asked questions

It is a duty on NHS commissioners in England. When your GP makes a non-urgent referral, regulation 39 of the Standing Rules Regulations 2012 requires that you 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. It is a choice of who assesses you, not a right to be referred and not a promise about timing.

Source: Standing Rules Regulations 2012, Part 8

Not necessarily, and nobody will give you a date. NHS South West London ICB answers the question on its own page and begins the answer with the word no, adding that while waiting times can differ between providers, Right To Choose does not guarantee quicker assessment. Integrated care boards now cap how much assessment activity they fund with each provider, so a provider can accept your referral and still have a long list.

Source: NHS South West London ICB

No. The choice applies once a referral is being made, and whether to refer is your GP's clinical decision. Regulation 39(6) treats a provider as clinically appropriate only in the opinion of the person making the referral, and an ICB's own step list has the GP deciding whether a referral for an assessment is appropriate before any provider is discussed.

Source: Regulation 39(6)

No. NHS West and North London ICB states that only a GP can make this type of referral. A provider's online form prepares paperwork for your GP appointment; completing it does not put you on a waiting list and does not start anything.

Source: NHS West and North London ICB

England. The duty falls on NHS commissioners in England, the referral has to come from a GP practice in England, and the NHS states that the related waiting-time right applies only to services commissioned by the NHS in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run separate health services, and this site describes none of them.

Source: NHS guide to waiting times in England

Anyone registered with a GP in England is legally entitled to access it, but two sets of limits sit on top. The regulations exclude urgent care and exclude people detained under the Mental Health Act 1983, people in or on temporary release from prison or other prescribed accommodation, and serving members of the armed forces. Each provider then applies its own inclusion and exclusion criteria, which can turn on age or on pre-existing needs.

Source: NHS South West London ICB

There is no reliable national figure. The independent ADHD Taskforce set up by NHS England states there are no national reports on waiting times for adults, and describes waits increasing to over four years for children and over eight years for adults, with 10 to 15 years reported in some areas. Your own wait depends on the provider and on what that provider has agreed with your commissioner.

Source: Report of the independent ADHD taskforce, part 1

Usually not. The NHS states that the right to start non-urgent consultant-led treatment within maximum waiting times does not include non-consultant-led mental health services, and many ADHD assessment teams are not consultant-led. Where that applies, no maximum waiting time attaches to your referral at all.

Source: NHS guide to waiting times in England

The assessment is paid for by the NHS: an ICB describes the pathway as access to providers, NHS and private, paid for by the NHS. What you may still pay is the English prescription charge of £9.90 per item, checked on 15 September 2026, unless you are exempt. A 12-month prepayment certificate costs £114.50 and the NHS says it saves money above 11 prescribed items in a year.

Source: NHS prescription charges

NHS South West London ICB states that Right to Choose covers ongoing prescriptions if a GP does not agree to take over prescribing through a shared care protocol, including first prescriptions used to stabilise medication. That is one board's published position about cost in its own area. Boards differ, no national rule was found that settles it, and a provider that only assesses cannot prescribe at all, so check both before you choose. Do not treat it as a guarantee that treatment continues: NHS England's final ADHD Taskforce report of November 2025 says many shared care arrangements are no longer in place, and its own case study of a Right to Choose patient whose practice declined records long delays in her getting medication. A wholly private assessment has no equivalent coverage, and an ICB warns the NHS may not pay for private prescription costs.

Sources: NHS South West London ICB and NHS England: independent ADHD Taskforce, part 2

No. ADHD Choice is an independent information site with no affiliation to the NHS, to any integrated care board or to any provider. It cannot make a referral, move one along, or find out where you are on a waiting list. Only a GP can refer you under this pathway.

No. NICE guideline NG87 states that ADHD should only be diagnosed by a specialist psychiatrist, paediatrician or other appropriately qualified healthcare professional, on the basis of three things together: a full clinical and psychosocial assessment covering behaviour and symptoms across the different settings of everyday life, a full developmental and psychiatric history, and observer reports and assessment of the person's mental state. Screening tools can help you decide whether to speak to your GP, and the ADHD Taskforce warns they can over and under-identify ADHD when used on their own.

Source: NICE NG87