Councillors have raised concerns over the “scary” numbers of people waiting for mental health services in North Staffordshire, with a Biddulph councillor saying families were “pawning the family silver” to go private.
The NHS autism caseload for the area increased from 1,993 to 2,635 in the 12 months up to June, with a 23.2% increase in referrals nationally over 2024/25, Moorlands councillors were told.
The adults referral caseload for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in North Staffordshire increased from less than 2,000 to around 3,500 over the year.
Increased awareness of mental health issues and the impact of the pandemic and lockdown were among the factors behind increase in referrals for both autism and ADHD across the country, councillors were told, (writes local democracy reporter Phil Corrigan).
Members of the Health and Wellbeing Committee at Staffordshire Moorlands District Council quizzed an NHS official on the increase in mental health caseloads and the steps being taken to bring down waiting times.
Ben Richards, chief operating officer at North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare, said that while waiting times for autism assessments had come down since last year, people were still waiting “far, far too long”.
NHS figures show that the average wait for an autism assessment in North Staffordshire fell from 92 to 71 weeks between June 2024 and March 2025. Mr Richards told the committee that while work had been carried out to ensure the service offer in North Staffordshire was now as good as in the south of the county, there had been no increase in capacity.
He said: “The data isn’t where any of us would want it to be. For autism, I receive double the numbers every week that I have the capacity to deal with, so it’s only going to get worse.
“This is by no means a Staffordshire problem, it’s happening countrywide. In one part of the country they’re approaching a 10-year wait. Lots of people are looking at this problem but nobody has a magic bullet.”
Actions taken to improve the service’s efficiency have included increased digitisation, with patients only seeing clinicians when they need to. But the committee was told that these efficiencies would not meet the “capacity gap”.
Mr Richards also explained that patients would be checked to ensure they were “waiting well” and not deteriorating significantly.
Biddulph North’s Coun Adam Parkes, a member of the committee who works as an educational consultant, said he was aware of parents paying around £3,000 for an autism diagnosis in the private sector, but still struggling to get their children the support they need.
Coun Parkes said: “I have a number of parents who speak to me on a regular basis, who are stuck in the waiting list.
“They’re pawning the family silver to get a private diagnosis. They’re getting a private diagnosis which, in your words, is not worth the paper it’s written on, and is not helping them on the journey to getting an education, health and care plan.”
Mr Richards said Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board was in the process of creating an accreditation system for private providers – although GPs were not required to accept a referral from the private sector.
He also suggested that in educational settings, some changes could be made to support a child without the need for a formal diagnosis.
Committee chair Coun John Jones said the caseload numbers were “quite scary”, and asked why there had been such a sharp increase in referrals.
Mr Richards said: “Covid and lockdown had a huge impact on mental health services. There was an increase in acceptance and willingness to talk about it, but there was also the impact of pandemic and lockdown itself. There has also been a reduction in the stigma, and social media influences.
“There’s a little bit of people seeking a label – by no means a huge part. Some of our clinicians find that frustrating when waiting lists are so long.”
