White Paper Submission to the Government Mental Health Review (NCAMH, March 2026)
As part of the Government’s Mental Health Review NCAMH held a consultation event and sought feedback from all practitioners currently enaged on one of the BPS Approved Autism and Mental Health Training Courses. NCAMH would like to thank all those practitioners who gave up their time to participate in this review.
Key themes and discussion from NCAMH consultation on the Government’s Mental Health Review
Please click here to access a full copy of the NCAMH White Paper, “Improving Mental Health Services for Autistic and Neurodivergent People,” which provides a summary of the key themes and discussions emerging from the consultation event and e-mail submissions.
The Executive Summary, policy context and scope of the review and ten policy recommendations included in the report are summarsied below:
1. Executive Summary
The white paper presents findings from a practitioner consultation conducted to help inform the UK Government’s Mental Health Review, chaired by Peter Fonagy. It synthesises frontline perspectives from clinicians, therapists, and practitioners working across child, adult, and family systems, alongside a robust body of research evidence (included in the reference list). We would like to extend our thanks to all practitioners who participated in this consultation with the National Centre for Autism and Mental Health.
The consultation identifies a mental health system that is fragmented, diagnosis-dependent, and insufficiently adapted to the needs of autistic and neurodivergent populations. Despite increased awareness and recognition of neurodiversity, services remain under-resourced and inconsistently delivered, resulting in significant unmet need.
Key findings include:
- Severe access barriers, including long waiting times and inconsistent referral pathways.
- Over-reliance on diagnosis, which delays or restricts access to support.
- Insufficient neurodiversity-informed practice, leading to misdiagnosis and disengagement.
- Reactive, crisis-driven care models, with limited early intervention
- Rising demand driven by awareness and unmet need, rather than overdiagnosis
- Significant inequalities across age, gender, and cultural groups
- Inadequate integration across health, education, and social care systems
This paper argues for a systemic shift towards a needs-led, integrative, preventative, and person-centred model of care, supported by workforce development, service redesign, and cross-sector integration.
2. Policy Context and Scope
The Government’s Mental Health Review represents a critical opportunity to evaluate and reform mental health services in England. Central to the review is the question of whether current systems are meeting the needs of diverse populations, particularly those who experience disproportionately poor outcomes.
Autistic and neurodivergent individuals are one such group. Research consistently demonstrates that autistic people are significantly more likely to experience co-occurring mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, and self-harm (Lai et al., 2019). Despite this elevated need, evidence indicates that services are often inaccessible, inappropriate, or ineffective (Crane et al., 2019).
The review seeks to address key questions relating to access, quality, and outcomes, including:
- How accessible are mental health services?
- Are current approaches meeting the needs of neurodivergent populations?
- What role does diagnosis play in accessing support?
- Why is demand increasing?
- What forms of early intervention are most effective?
This white paper contributes to these questions by presenting practitioner-informed themes, supported by empirical research. Practitioners are uniquely positioned to observe how policy translates into practice, and their insights provide valuable evidence of systemic strengths and weaknesses.
3. Policy recommendations
The summary paper sets out 10 policy recommendations as follows:
- Adopt a Needs led Neuro-Informed and Responsive Model of Care
- Reduce waiting times and increase capacity
- Provide early support during assessment delays
- Invest in Workforce Training (Neurodiversity and Mental Health)
- Develop more robust Autism/Neurodiversity and Mental Health Pathways of Care
- Expand Early Support and Prevention
- Strengthen Post Diagnostic Support Pathways
- Integrate Health, Education and Social Care Systems
- Address inequalities through targeted strategies
- Expand definitions of mental health support