Your Right to Choose With ADHD 360

An update on ADHD 360 RTC waiting times:

We are experiencing increasing demand for our ADHD services alongside the NHS being unable to meet demand, which has created longer waiting lists for assessment and treatment. Whilst we continue to strive to assess and treat within 18 weeks from the date of your referral being received by us, due to increased demand, referrals received after the 1st June 2024 may be subject to increased waiting times. We are actively heavily recruiting across all departments in order to achieve our 18 week ambition, but we ask that you please bear with us whilst we navigate this continued national challenge. Please be mindful that any enquiry relating to Right to Choose wait times will not include any specific wait time estimations for your referral, and the above message will be replicated. We thank you for considering us as your provider of choice and your continued patience.

If you're facing extended waiting times for ADHD assessments and treatments through the NHS, it's important to know that you have alternatives. In some areas, the wait can be excessively long, prompting the need to explore different options.

One viable option is exercising your Right To Choose (RTC).

Our services are available for Adults, as well as for Children aged 14 and 15, under the RTC framework.

Adults aged 16+
Right to Choose

If you're an Adult aged 16+ who would like to start their RTC journey with ADHD 360 you can download the documents you need below:

Children aged 14-15 Right to Choose

If you would like to start your RTC journey with ADHD 360 for a child who is aged 14-15 you can download the documents you need below:

Starting your Right to Choose Journey
with ADHD 360

We've made it easy to get the documents you need to start your Right to Choose (RTC) journey with ADHD 360. To get started:

Click the button below and complete our online RTC form.
You'll receive an email from us with three attachments: a Right to Choose referal cover letter, referral document, and risk assessment.
Complete and send these documents to your GP to request a RTC referral to ADHD 360.

Please note that we can only accept Right to Choose referrals for children aged 14 and 15, and adults 16 years and older.

Once your GP sends us your referral, we'll reach out to you by email with the next steps.

So what is the Right to Choose?

There is a lot of misunderstanding about Right to Choose, let’s clear some of that up. The legal rights to choice of mental health provider and team apply when:

The patient has an elective referral for a first outpatient appointment.

The patient is referred by
a GP.

The referral is clinically
appropriate.

The service and team are led by a consultant or a mental healthcare professional.

The provider has an NHS Standard Contract with any CCG or NHS England for the required service.

As in physical health, patients’ legal rights to choice apply following a referral by a GP to any provider that has an NHS Standard Contract with any CCG or NHS England for the required service.

NHS guidance states “Having chosen a provider, the patient must be treated by that provider for the entire episode of care for which the patient was referred (unless the provider does not provide the clinically appropriate service that the patient needs or, in the provider’s reasonable professional opinion, a patient is unsuitable to receive the relevant service, for as long as they remain unsuitable)”

Acting upon advice from NHS England we have interpreted this statement to mean that your assessment and treatment to a point where you are stable and optimised on your medication will be covered by your elected Right To Choose.

There are some exclusions from these legal rights to choice. These are where a patient is:

Already receiving mental health care following an elective referral for the same condition; or
Referred to a service that is commissioned by a local authority, for example, a drug and alcohol service (unless commissioned under a Section 75 Agreement); or
Accessing urgent or emergency (that is, crisis) care; or
Accessing services delivered through a primary care contract; or
In high secure psychiatric services; or
Detained under the Mental Health Act 1983; or detained in a secure setting. This includes people in or on temporary release from prisons, courts, secure children’s homes, certain secure training centres, immigration removal centres or young offender institutions; or
Serving as a member of the armed forces (family members in England have the same rights as other residents of England).

Please note the following: No prior commissioner approval is required for consultant-led elective care or in the case of mental health, services led by a healthcare professional, where the patient has exercised choice of provider under the legal rights set out in the NHS Constitution. (NHS Document Right to Choose in Mental health v5 available here.

For a comprehensive understanding of your Right To Choose, you can access the official NHS guidelines here.

What do you, the patient, have to know?

You need to meet the criteria for an assessment for ADHD, that’s fair, as an assessment is expensive. We recommend you complete our screening questionnaire and submit the result with your application. You can find the screening tool on our iPhone app ADHD360 or we can send you a copy by email.

This should also be your first appointment for an assessment.
And finally, you can only ‘choose’ a service that is currently employed on NHS contracts, such as ADHD 360.

How to get diagnosis & treatment via Right to Choose:

A letter to your GP, this includes the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-v1.1) questionnaire, please fill this in as meaningfully as possible and give this to your GP. You can download a template here

Referral form, give this to your GP they will fill this in and send it over to us. You can download the template here

You can also download the NHS choice in mental health care document here