• In a response to a recent question made in the Assembly, the Health Minister said there are currently 17,205 children waiting for an autism assessment.
  • The Minister said there has been a “significant increase” in referrals and “unfortunately Autism Services do not currently have the capacity to meet this need” due to a lack of investment and “missed opportunities to reform health and social care delivery”.
  • Waiting lists vary by health trust: Northern Trust has the largest number of children waiting (5,923); Southern Trust has the fewest (1,681).
  • Official figures say there are currently 17,760 children of compulsory school age that currently have an autism diagnosis.
  • This means that for almost every child with a diagnosis, there is another awaiting an assessment.

In a statement to the NI Assembly on 14 October, Alliance Party MLA Nuala McAllister claimed:

“Over 17,000 children in Northern Ireland are on a waiting list for an autism assessment.”

This is supported by evidence.

In response to an Assembly Written Question, the Health Minister said last month that there are currently 17,205 children awaiting an autism assessment across the five health trusts.

The Minister also said that waiting lists will only go down with an increase in resources, and the reason they have grown so large is down to several factors – including both a lack of investment and a failure to reform the structures around service delivery in Health and Social Care.

According to the latest Department of Health (DoH) annual statement on the prevalence for autism in school-aged children in NI, there are currently 17,760 children with an autism diagnosis.

This means that for almost every child with a diagnosis, there is another awaiting an assessment.

For more information, read on.

  • Source

FactCheckNI contacted Ms McAllister about this claim, and she pointed us to a media report in the Irish News.

The Irish News article refers to an Assembly Written Question answered by the Health Minister which suggests the number of children waiting is above 17,000.

  • Written Question

On 23 September, DUP MLA Deborah Erskine asked Health Minister Mike Nesbitt to “detail the number of children currently waiting for an autism spectrum disorder assessment.” As part of his response from 8 October, the Minister said: 

“There has been significant increase in the number of children referred for an Autism Diagnostic Assessment and unfortunately Autism Services do not currently have the capacity to meet this need. Additional investment in autism services is required to reduce waiting lists. I acknowledge that the current waiting times for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are lengthy and growing for children across Northern Ireland. This situation has arisen due to several factors, including funding that falls short of objectively assessed need and previous missed opportunities to reform health and social care delivery. I am committed to addressing this, subject to available funding.”

He also provided the following table outlining the number of children currently waiting for an assessment:

Figure 1 – source: Health Minister

This response, provided less than a week before Ms McAllister’s claim and coming straight from the Health Minister, provides clear evidence to support the claim.

  • Wider context

Over the past decade and more, more and more children are being assessed for autism in Northern Ireland – and, ultimately, an increasing number are receiving a diagnosis.

The following graph shows the growing prevalence of autism among school-aged children in NI between 2008-09 and 2024-25.

Figure 2 – source: DoH

This 5.9% prevalence rate of autism in NI school children (aged 4-15 year olds) for the 2024-25 school year equates to about one in 17 school aged children having an autism diagnosis. 

This data comes from the 2025 annual report on the Prevalence of Autism (including Asperger Syndrome) in School Age Children in Northern Ireland. According to that report, among children of compulsory school age (meaning those aged 4-15 at the start of the school year): 

“Figures extracted from the 2024/25 Northern Ireland School Census show that 17,760 school aged children had been diagnosed with autism.”

This means that there are nearly as many children waiting for an autism assessment as there are total school-aged children with an official diagnosis.

  • Autism and assessment times

According to charity Autism NI, waiting times for an autism diagnosis can be as long as five years while extended waits are linked with reduced long-term outcomes.