AQW 25847/17-22 Written question to the Minister of Health
To ask the Minister of Health to detail the average waiting time, after referral, for a child to receive an autism assessment by an educational psychologist, broken down by constituency.
Asked by Claire Sugden MLA on 16 November 2021
- Answered
- Written
- Tabled
- 16 November 2021
- Answer due by
- 1 December 2021
- Answered
- 25 November 20219 days after tabling
- Department
- Department of Health
- Priority question
- No
Answer
The number of individuals waiting for an autism assessment in each Health and Social Care Trust, by length of time, is set out in Table 1.
The Department of Health does not hold this information broken down by the participants of the assessment panel nor broken down by constituency.
Table 1: Waiting times, after referral, for a child to receive an autism assessment/diagnosis by Health and Social Care (HSC) Trust as at 30th September 2021.
| HSC Trust | Length of time waiting (weeks) | ||||
| 0-13 | >13-26 | >26-52 | >52 | Total | |
| Belfast | 269 | 247 | 425 | 1,079 | 2,020 |
| Northern | 385 | 497 | 744 | 587 | 2,213 |
| South Eastern* | 79 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 79 |
| Southern | 146 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 146 |
| Western | 178 | 192 | 315 | 542 | 1,227 |
| Northern Ireland | 1,057 | 936 | 1,484 | 2,208 | 5,685 |
Source: Monthly ‘Children’s Autism Waiting Times’ returns from HSC Trusts. Average waiting times are not collected.
*SEHSCT has different pathways for this service hence the variation from that in the other four HSC Trusts.