We accept the Committee’s recommendation to improve diagnosis and work is already underway to this end. We recognise that getting a timely diagnosis of autism is key to ensuring that autistic people can access the right support as early on as possible in life. This is why we have put forward actions as part of our refreshed national autism strategy, which was published in July 2021 and will be implemented over 5 years. This has been extended for the first time to include children and young people, in recognition of the importance of ensuring that people receive the right support throughout their lives. It has been backed by over £74 million in the first year alone. We know some autistic people do not receive a diagnosis until later in adolescence or even until adulthood, and that in many areas people are waiting longer than the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)-recommended 13 weeks between a referral and first autism assessment. The NICE guidelines Autism spectrum disorder in adults: diagnosis and management, Autism spectrum disorder in under 19s: recognition, referral and diagnosis, and Autism spectrum disorder in under 19s: support and management state that people should be waiting no longer than 13 weeks between a referral for an autism assessment and a first appointment. The NICE guideline does not recommend a maximum waiting time for the whole diagnostic pathway, recognising that making a diagnosis can be complex and involve a range of different professionals and agencies. Recognising the complex nature of diagnosis, we are taking action to improve the process and overall waiting times. As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, we invested £2.5 million to test and implement the most effective ways to reduce autism diagnosis waiting times for 22 The treatment of autistic people and people with learning disabilities: Government Response children and young people, in England. We will build on this with a further investment of £2.5 million, per year until March 2024, to test and implement the most effective autism diagnosis pathways for children and young people. To improve early identification, we have invested £600,000 into significantly expanding an autism early identification pilot in Bradford. This pilot will be tested in at least 100 schools over the next three years, to assess if new approaches can achieve diagnosis faster. The pilot involves teams screening children and young people who are likely to be autistic and bringing multidisciplinary teams together in school settings to diagnose children more rapidly. This assessment complies with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on the diagnosis of autism. The early findings are positive. Education staff report that they are better able to identify and put in place the support children need to thrive in their education. We need to better monitor changes in autism diagnosis waiting times and are committed to improving the data on waiting times for autism diagnostic assessments. NHS Digital started collecting data about autism diagnosis waiting times from April 2018 and the data was first released in November 2019. These are experimental statistics, and work is underway to improve the quality and reliability of the data. It is important to note that the current data is based on reporting of diagnoses by mental health organisations; community services (where children are typically diagnosed) are not currently reported in this dataset. We are working with NHSE and NHS Digital on an action plan to bring together different sets of data so we can monitor and fully report on waiting times for children and young people. Chapter 3: Wellbeing and accountability