England's ADHD Taskforce asks who may diagnose ADHD
- Part 2 of the report of the independent ADHD Taskforce, commissioned by NHS England in 2024 and chaired by Anita Thapar, was published on 6 November 2025 and sets out how the recommendations of Part 1 (June 2025) could be implemented across health, education, employment and criminal justice.
- NICE guidance allows ADHD to be diagnosed by a specialist psychiatrist, a paediatrician or an "other appropriately qualified healthcare professional with training and expertise in diagnosing ADHD"; the taskforce reports that it is unclear what this means, with enormous variation across the NHS and the independent sector, and asks NHS England/DHSC to work with NICE to define it.
- Assessing and treating ADHD should be core competencies for all psychiatrists, community paediatricians, psychologists and specialist mental health nurses, with curricula and CPD co-developed by the Royal Colleges and the professional bodies for mental health nursing and psychology.
- The report proposes supervised task sharing (initial assessments by trained nurses and junior staff, prescribing and follow-up by specialist nurses and pharmacists), Care Quality Commission oversight of all ADHD providers and the same waiting time standards as for physical health.
In England, ADHD can be diagnosed by a specialist psychiatrist, a paediatrician or, in the wording of NICE guidance, an "other appropriately qualified healthcare professional with training and expertise in diagnosing ADHD". Part 2 of the independent ADHD Taskforce report, published by NHS England in November 2025, states that nobody has defined that third category. Providers in the NHS and the independent sector read the phrase in very different ways. The taskforce asks NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care to work with NICE on an explicit definition and to say which qualifications fit which parts of ADHD care.
Elsewhere the report widens the workforce. Assessment and treatment of ADHD are to become core competencies for psychiatrists, community paediatricians, psychologists and specialist mental health nurses. Trained nurses and junior staff could run initial assessments under supervision. Graduate psychologists already conduct semi-structured diagnostic interviews in research, with a senior clinician confirming the diagnosis. Specialist nurses and pharmacists could take over prescribing and follow-up, leaving senior doctors for complex cases and supervision.
Who counts as qualified
My reading is that the coming definition will decide who in a team signs the diagnosis and who prepares the material for it. If it lists professions, a clinical psychologist with years of differential diagnosis behind them may end up on the preparing side. If it lists competencies and supervised training, the signature follows the skill. For psychiatrists the shift runs the other way: less routine titration, more supervision and comorbid cases.
Clients feel this most directly. The report describes people repeating assessments because a diagnosis from one provider was not accepted by another, or because a GP declined shared care. A stated standard is what lets a diagnosis move between services. Colleagues who assess adults privately can already write down what training, supervision and published quality standard stand behind their ADHD assessments.
NICE allows ADHD to be diagnosed by an "appropriately qualified healthcare professional", and the taskforce reports that nobody has said who that is.
The taskforce has no power to implement its recommendations; government and public bodies decide whether to act on them. The report asks for the definition but does not propose one, and it covers England only.
- ADHD
- diagnosis
- NHS England
- NICE
- workforce
- clinical governance
- task sharing