Written evidence submitted by ADHD 360

SFC0039

ADHD 360

Introduction to ADHD 360

• ADHD 360 is the UK’s largest single specialist ADHD clinic diagnosing and treating patients for ADHD and autism aged 6-76 years old across the UK.
• The clinics are continuously quality assured by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), as well as NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), and our clinicians are all graduates of the CPD accredited ADHD academy.
• ADHD 360 has the capacity to assess 1,500 new patients a month, and its scale and agility means ADHD 360 can deliver its service at a far lower cost than NHS England.
• ADHD 360 strives to reduce the inequalities of undiagnosed and untreated neurodiverse conditions by stabilising patient’s conditions within 12 - 15 weeks.
• ADHD 360 is dedicated to delivering a tailored package of care to each patient. At the core of ADHD 360 is the utilisation of technology, such as virtual hospitals, to drive up efficiency in patient treatment.
• ADHD 360’s service is designed to harness the advantages of IT, a flexible workforce, and processes to deliver a service focused on a single condition.
• ADHD 360 wish to submit evidence to the Committee in order to share our learnings from working in the SEND sector and offer solutions that can practicably be taken to improve outcomes for those with ADHD.

Summary

• The waiting times for ADHD assessments has reached up to eight years. The health service must embrace digital solutions to alleviate its capacity issues and deliver better care for patients.
• The societal costs of untreated ADHD are huge – from contributing to health inequalities, poor educational outcomes, increased engagement in anti-social behaviour, and overrepresentation in the prison population.
• Embracing innovation is crucial to improving the patient experience, and the health service should be encouraged to engage with the private sector’s experience and expertise in SEND.
• The ADHD Taskforce, announced by NHS England in March 2024 but paused at the calling of the general election, should offer an appropriate opportunity to identify and share learnings around the condition and help improve support and care for those affected.

Evidence

It is well-documented and accepted that the NHS is facing substantial pressures on services. However, due to misplaced perceptions around ADHD, there have been major barriers to access to provision. While public awareness of the condition has increased, post-pandemic there has been a rise in demand for services, with Nuffield Trust revealing a 51% increase in prescriptions for ADHD medication since 2019.

Research has also found that the average life expectancy for a person with ADHD is shortened by thirteen years. However, this isn’t a reduction in life from simply ‘having ADHD’, but is instead from the consequent factors of increased mortality such as smoking, substance abuse, excessive alcohol consumption, obesity, poor diet and an inclination to risk-taking behaviours, that can lead to stroke and heart attacks.

The most significant way to increase support for children and young people is to improve access to treatment across the UK. From diagnoses to treatment plans, it is vital that children and young people can reliably access all required SEND services.

Over working with 20,000 patients, ADHD 360 has uncovered unseen benefits. This includes reduced:

• engagements with primary care – reductions in addictions, obesity, and other lifestyle conditions.
• cost and disruption to education – less need for additional staff and infrastructure for ADHD pupils.
• demands on social care as a result of reduced family dysfunction and improved employment prospects.
• instances of untreated patients in the criminal justice system.

It is crucial that the experience, expertise, and innovation witnessed in the public sector is drawn upon if the government hope to reduce the backlog in ADHD diagnoses. At present we see a reluctance in the health service to embrace modernisation and digitisation, and encouraging the NHS to support reform, in both digital and commercial ways of working, will prove successful for delivering an enhanced service to all users.

ADHD 360’s service, for example, has proven to be more cost effective and cheaper by head than NHS provision as well as offering a higher level of service quality. It is vital that more efficient models such as this are explored by the NHS in order tackle the backlog in assessments and better support children and young people with SEND. The ADHD Taskforce should be re-started to provide a useful vessel for dialogue and platform to share learnings between the public and private sector.

November 2024