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Updates from the Children’s Autism and ADHD Assessment Service
Published
Dr. Victoria Thurston is the Clinical Lead for the Children's Autism and ADHD Assessment Service (CAAAS). Here she provides an update on the waiting times for Autism and ADHD assessment for children and the support available to families.
Assessment waiting times
We are sorry for the long waiting times for assessment for Autism. This is both a national and local problem because:
- It is now estimated that 3% of children are Autistic (previously estimated at 1%).
- In Gloucestershire there were a lot of children who were not diagnosed; this led to lots of referrals into the service when it opened.
- As a new service we have been employing and training new team members.
Children who were waiting for assessment across Gloucestershire have now been sent to CAAAS.
The waiting time for an Autism assessment is over three years and will get longer before it begins to get shorter. The NHS team is working closely with commissioners to reduce waits. The waiting time for ADHD assessment is around two years.
Support for families and young people
Support in Gloucestershire is needs led, so families with neurodivergent children can access this. The Local Offer has information about where families can get support for their child, and explains the Graduated Approach to support.
Gloucestershire Parent Carer Forum and SENDIASS both offer advice and support to families around a range of areas, including education.
The ‘Parenting through Partnership’ course, run by the CAMHS Parent Support team, supports families to adapt when their child is anxious and is designed for neurodivergent as well as neurotypical children. CAAAS are also developing half-day sessions to help families to understand key differences for neurodivergent young people.
Websites we can recommend include:
Support a child's neurodiversity > Glos Health & Care NHS Foundation Trust – These are ideas and practical suggestions to support families and young people
Neurodivergence Podcast - Life in the MiND is a series of podcasts by young neuro-divergent people who share their knowledge and experiences.
www.yourewelcomeglos.org – is a tool to help families find inclusive activities for their neuro-divergent young person.
www.onyourmindglos.nhs.uk helps families to find the right mental health support for their young person.
In the future we hope to work with education and families to develop a tool that will give a clear pattern of strengths and needs, with a support plan from point of referral.
Communicating with the CAAAS Team
The team gets around 500 emails from families each month. We try to reply to these messages quickly, but it can take up to a month to reply. As a lot of families are asking if their child is on our list, we will soon be sending text messages to confirm this. Current waiting times are on our website.
Right to Choose and private assessments
We understand that many families are choosing to access private or Right to Choose assessments for Autism and ADHD.
Please email us at CAAAS.Team@ghc.nhs.uk if you choose to do this, along with a copy of your child’s diagnostic report. We will then invite you to our post-diagnostic groups, and, if you would like medication for ADHD, we can read the report before deciding who can help you to think about medication.
For more information on Neurodiversity and the CAAAS pathway, please visit Gloucestershire's Local Offer, Support for Families with SEND - Autism and ADHD page.