Determining local service levels for a service for the diagnosis and management of children and young people with ADHD

Benchmarks for a standard population

Available data suggest that the indicative benchmark rate for referral to a service for the assessment, diagnosis and management of children and young people aged 3-15 years with moderate-to-severe attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is 50 per 100,000 population (all ages), per year.

For a notional primary care trust population of 250,000 the average number of children and young people needing referral for assessment, diagnosis and management of moderate-to-severe ADHD for 3-15 years would be 125 per year.

For an average practice with a list size of 10,000, the average number of children and young people needing referral for assessment, diagnosis and management of moderate-to-severe ADHD for 3-15 years would be 5 per year.

Examine the assumptions used in estimating these figures.

This service is likely to fall under the programme budgeting category 205X (other mental health disorders).

Use the service for the diagnosis and management of children and young people with ADHD commissioning and benchmarking tool to determine the level of service that might be needed locally and to calculate the cost of commissioning the service using the indicative benchmark and/or your own local data.

Some parents or carers of children and young people with ADHD will need referral to a group parent-training/education programme, either on its own or together with a group treatment programme (cognitive behavioural therapy [CBT] and/or social skills training) for the child or young person. The service for the diagnosis and management of children and young people with ADHD commissioning and benchmarking tool includes estimates of likely participation rates of parents in parent-training/education programmes and of young people in group treatment programmes (CBT or social skills training).

Services for young people aged 3 to 17 years

The transition of young people aged 16-17 years into adult services is included in the NICE commissioning guide on service for the diagnosis and management of ADHD in adults.

However, an indicative benchmark rate is also offered below for children and young people aged 3-17 years for those commissioners who wish to include young people aged 16 and 17 in the planning of services for children and young people.

Available data suggest that the indicative benchmark rate for referral to a service for the assessment, diagnosis and management of children and young people aged 3-17 years with moderate-to-severe ADHD is 60 per 100,000 population (all ages), per year.

For a notional primary care trust population of 250,000 the average number of children and young people aged 3-17 years needing referral for assessment, diagnosis and management of moderate-to-severe ADHD would be 150 per year.

For an average practice with a list size of 10,000, the average number of children and young people aged 3-17 years needing referral for assessment, diagnosis and management of moderate-to-severe ADHD would be 6 per year.

Further information

Sources of further information to help you in assessing local health needs and reducing health inequalities include:

• Annex A of the Commissioning framework for health and well-being outlines the process and data needed to undertake a joint strategic needs assessment.
• Department of Health Delivering quality and value - focus on benchmarking.
• PRIMIS+ provides support to general practices on information management, recording for, and analysis of, data quality, plus a comparative analysis service focused on key clinical topics.