The UK National Autism Diagnostic Services survey 2020 aims to identify existing models of diagnostic assessment and gain an understanding of associated barriers and facilitators to service delivery. The survey is part of a wider research programme led by colleagues at Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust. Parents and parent organisations are involved as part of the research team.

The programme aims to answer the question: How should child development and child and adolescent mental health teams provide timely and cost-effective, high quality diagnostic assessments of children with possible autism?

*Please note we use the term 'autism' to mean any autism spectrum disorder diagnosis

Information collected during the survey regarding local diagnostic assessment processes for children with possible autism will help us gain a comprehensive picture of current UK practice. This survey will also enable identification of examples of different service models for the next stage of the research programme. Where services consent, we may contact them about possible interest in the second stage of this research that aims to gain a detailed understanding of what types of service configuration are associated with timely, high quality diagnostic assessments. This research will inform the NHS Long Term Plan about the resources that are required by autism diagnostic teams.

We aim to publish our findings in 2021.

If you would like to take part please click here or to find out more about the research please contact:

Dr Sarah Wigham email: sarah.wigham@newcastle.ac.uk

Professor Jeremy Parr email: jeremy.parr@newcastle.ac.uk