Package for LBC News, played on 1st April 2026 Breakfast Show with Simon Conway.
Children and young adults may be being “incentivised” to seek diagnoses for ADHD and autism, according to an interim report from a government-commissioned review.
The report, commissioned by Health Secretary Wes Streeting, warns that “institutional incentives” may be encouraging some people to pursue diagnoses when, in certain cases, other forms of support might be more appropriate.
An ADHD or autism diagnosis can unlock practical support at school — including extra time in exams, assistive technology, and more tailored help in the classroom.
That raises a difficult question: could those benefits incentivise children and parents to pursue a diagnosis they might not otherwise seek?
That’s one of the suggestions in a new interim report from the government’s review of mental health services.
Dr Simon Opher, chair of the Beyond Pills All-Party Parliamentary Group, says linking support too closely to diagnosis can distort the system.
‘As you put a monetary value on a diagnosis it skews the outcomes and thought these children have difficulties we need different wats to think abot their diagnosis. people funding it skews the diagnosis reallty.’
Diagnoses of ADHD have risen sharply in recent years, and the report also points to a substantial increase in autism-related claims.
That has prompted concern in some quarters that more people may be being diagnosed than necessary.
But not everyone agrees.
Sarah Templeton, an ADHD author and advocate, says the real issue is still underdiagnosis — but diagnosis.
‘No. It’s not an overdiagnosis problem its an underdiagnosis problem. Ive been doing this for 30 years, and in those 30 years ive not met one person who’s got an adhd diagnosis who isnt adhd. So this fear that some people’ve got that some people are getting a diagnosis who don’t have adhd is completely unfounded.
Others, including Dr Simon Opher, say the wider challenge is how schools and services support children who are struggling — whether or not they meet the threshold for a formal diagnosis.
‘The problem that has emerged over the last few years is that we’ve medicalised so much of this process so we give it a genuine diagnosis which then has treatments attached which is over the top for what most children have.‘
His argument is that support should be available based on need, not only after diagnosis: ‘I think what we need to do is make sure children who find learning difficult are really supported and they dont need diagnosis for that.’
More of my work from LBC:
