What Right to Choose actually gives you

One thing, precisely: a choice of who assesses you, at the moment a referral is being made. Not the referral itself, not a date, and not a provider outside the contract net.

The short version

What you get is a choice between providers, exercised at the point your GP refers you.
What you do not get is a right to be referred, a promised date, or access to a provider without a qualifying NHS contract.
The duty is on the commissioner, not on the provider and not on you.

It helps to state the entitlement in one sentence and then defend that sentence, because almost every misunderstanding of this pathway comes from a sentence that is slightly too generous.

Here is the sentence. When your GP in England refers you for a non-urgent ADHD assessment, the NHS body responsible for your care has to let you choose which clinically appropriate provider that referral goes to, from among providers holding a qualifying NHS contract.

Read it as a duty on someone else

Regulation 39(1) of the Standing Rules Regulations 2012 is written as an obligation on the commissioner. A relevant body must make arrangements to ensure that a person who requires an elective referral, and for whom that body has responsibility, is given the choices specified in paragraph (2).

That framing matters in practice. The thing that has been created is an arrangement that has to exist. If it is not offered to you, what has gone wrong is that a commissioner has not made an arrangement, which is why a question about it goes to your integrated care board rather than to the provider you wanted.

The two limbs of the choice

Paragraph (2) splits mental health referrals in two. Where your first outpatient appointment would be with a consultant or a member of a consultant's team, one limb applies. Where it would not, which covers a lot of ADHD assessment services, regulation 39(2)(b) applies instead, and it gives you a choice of any clinically appropriate health service provider with whom any commissioning body has a qualifying contract, and of any clinically appropriate team led by a named health care professional employed or engaged by that provider.

Notice the phrase inclusive of any subsequent treatment required as a result of that elective referral. The choice is not limited to the first appointment on that limb. It extends to what follows from the referral, which is part of why the prescribing question is worth asking before you choose.

The NHS restates the team-level part in consumer language: once you have chosen a service provider, you also have the right to choose the mental health service team that will be in charge of your treatment.

What is deliberately not in the sentence

If someone offers to secure your Right to Choose for you, the thing they are describing does not exist as a grantable status. What exists is a duty that attaches automatically once a referral is being made.

No promise about timing. The regulation says nothing about how long the chosen provider may take.
No right to be referred. The referral decision comes first and belongs to your GP.
No reach beyond the contract net. A provider without a qualifying NHS Standard Contract in effect before your referral date is not one of the choices.
No application process. There is nothing to apply for, no form to submit to the NHS, and no body that grants you Right to Choose status.

Questions people ask about this

Do I have to apply for Right to Choose?

No. There is no application and no body that grants it. The duty in regulation 39 of the Standing Rules Regulations 2012 attaches automatically when your GP in England makes a non-urgent referral, and it requires the commissioner to offer you a choice of clinically appropriate provider holding a qualifying NHS contract. What you do need is the referral itself, which is your GP's clinical decision.

Does Right to Choose cover treatment as well as the assessment?

On the limb that covers non-consultant-led mental health referrals, regulation 39(2)(b) describes the choice as inclusive of any subsequent treatment required as a result of that referral. In practice what a given provider actually offers after a diagnosis varies, and NHS South West London ICB warns that not all Right to Choose providers can start or prescribe medicine, so ask before the referral is sent.