What changed in 2025 and 2026

A taskforce reported, NHS England issued prioritisation advice, and commissioners started capping funded activity. The entitlement did not move; the capacity behind it was rationed.

The short version

June 2025: the independent ADHD Taskforce published part 1 of its report.
October 2025: NHS England published advice to systems on ADHD service delivery and prioritisation.
November 2025: the Taskforce published part 2, its final report, on 6 November.
November 2025: a reported pause on new Right to Choose bookings in at least nine NHS areas, described in a dated secondary report.
July 2026: NHS South West London ICB implemented Indicative Activity Plans for each of its Right to Choose ADHD providers.

This page exists because a lot of advice about Right to Choose is undated, and on this subject a year makes the difference between accurate and misleading. What follows is the sequence, with each item attached to the date its source carries.

June 2025: the Taskforce reports

NHS England published part 1 of the report of the independent ADHD taskforce. Among its findings: waiting times for NHS services are increasing, up to 4+ years for children and up to 8+ years for adults, and demand outstrips the capacity of services. It also recorded that there are no national reports on waiting times for adults, and recommended that providers and integrated care boards must ensure support for those waiting and provide clear signposting to local organisations that can provide information and support.

October 2025: prioritisation advice

NHS England published ADHD service delivery and prioritisation, advice to systems, dated 6 October 2025. It named the Activity Management provisions in the NHS Standard Contract as the route to Indicative Activity Plans, described what a support offer for people waiting could include, and warned that forms of stratification or clinical triage that are untested or lack an evidence base are likely to present risks, including potential harm to patients.

November 2025: the Taskforce's final report

NHS England published part 2 of the independent ADHD Taskforce report on 6 November 2025. Its programme page describes part 2 as building on the interim report by describing how the recommendations to transform ADHD services can be implemented, which makes the June 2025 document the interim one.

Two things in it matter here. It recommends that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care ensure equity by having the same waiting time standards for ADHD as for other health conditions, which is a recommendation rather than a standard now in force. And it records that shared care protocols for ADHD have become more problematic in recent years with many arrangements no longer in place, which is the step where this pathway most often stalls after a diagnosis.

November 2025: a reported pause, from a secondary source

The SEND news site Special Needs Jungle reported on 28 November 2025 that several independent providers had published statements saying their ADHD and autism Right to Choose services were paused for NHS patients in some areas, and that NHS commissioners in those areas had instructed them to stop booking new assessments until April 2026, creating what it called another postcode lottery.

That is campaigning journalism about the 2025/26 financial year rather than a regulator's statement, and it is cited here with its date attached for that reason. It should not be read as a description of what is happening in your area now. Only your own integrated care board can tell you that.

2026: activity plans in the open

NHS South West London ICB states that from 1 July 2026 it implemented Indicative Activity Plans for each of its Right to Choose ADHD providers, while confirming that GP referrals continue whenever clinically appropriate. NHS West and North London ICB says it has not paused assessments, that there are very long waitlists, and that some providers may have already reached their IAP limit for 2026/27.

NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB went further for adults, asking all providers of adult ADHD services, commissioned both locally and nationally, to reduce the number of new adult ADHD assessments they offer from April onwards for patients who have waited less than 52 weeks, while stating it is committed to ensure that residents can continue to access ADHD assessment pathways in respect of Choice legislation and continue to have a choice of provider.

Questions people ask about this

What did the ADHD Taskforce's final report say?

Part 2, published on 6 November 2025, is the final report and sets out recommendations. It asks NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure equity by having the same waiting time standards for ADHD as for other health conditions, says the Care Quality Commission should have oversight of all ADHD service providers, and calls for nationally agreed minimum contracting standards that commissioners must follow, including when patient choice is applied. None of that is in force; they are recommendations.

Has Right to Choose been cancelled for ADHD?

No, and no source in this timeline says it has. The duty in regulation 39 is unchanged, and NHS England's October 2025 advice to systems assumes it continues. What changed is that commissioners now cap the funded volume of assessments with each provider, and one ICB has asked adult providers to reduce new assessments for people who have waited less than 52 weeks. Local positions differ and change, so check your own integrated care board.

Were Right to Choose referrals paused anywhere?

A report published by Special Needs Jungle on 28 November 2025 said commissioners in at least nine NHS areas had instructed independent providers to stop booking new Right to Choose assessments until April 2026. That is a dated secondary report about the 2025/26 financial year, not a regulator's statement and not a description of the present. This site does not publish a current list of paused areas because no reliable national list exists.