On 9 October 2026 the Department of Health and Social Care asked CQC to regulate every ADHD and autism diagnostic assessment, including diagnosis-only services. ND Lens checks each signed-off report against the UKAAN quality standard and your clinic's own rules, then exports an inspection-ready compliance pack.
Driving is mentioned, but the report does not reference DVLA guidance or record any driving-safety action as the standard recommends.
The announcement follows the independent review into mental health conditions, ADHD and autism chaired by Professor Peter Fonagy. Private clinics that assess and diagnose without treating have grown quickly to meet NHS overflow and Right to Choose demand, and until now sat outside CQC's remit.
DHSC has asked CQC to regulate every ADHD and autism diagnostic assessment, not only services that also offer treatment.
Current legislation lets CQC regulate services that diagnose and treat, but not those that only diagnose. New regulations will close that gap.
Regulation begins once the new rules are in place, and CQC says it will develop the approach with stakeholders. That makes now the window to get documentation in order.
“It will close a significant gap in our oversight, meaning that people receiving these diagnoses can have far greater confidence in the service they're receiving.”
ND Lens reads each signed-off diagnostic report and checks it against Theme 2 of the UK Adult ADHD Network's Assessment Quality Assurance Standard (AQAS, 2023): the published benchmark for what an adult ADHD report must document.
The standard is the starting point, not the limit. Your clinic defines its own rules on top, and every report is checked against both. An inspector will ask whether your diagnoses are supported by recorded evidence; this answers that question for every report, not a sampled few.
Generated on demand for any completed assessment, dated and attributed to the clinician who produced it. Generating and downloading a pack is itself recorded in the audit trail.
The clinician's final diagnostic report, with filename, upload time and size recorded.
Every patient and informant answer, exactly as given, so each conclusion can be traced to its source.
Every action on the assessment, timestamped. Clinicians are named; patients and informants appear by role.
Verdicts and rationale against the AQAS standard and your clinic's own rules, so any gap is visible before anyone else looks.
An accessible, mobile-friendly questionnaire with save and resume. Every answer is captured in a structured record.
The report is written and finalised by the clinician as it is today. ND Lens stores it against the assessment.
The report is checked against the AQAS criteria and your clinic's own rules, then bundled with the responses and audit trail, ready to print or share.
The review only ever assesses documentation quality: whether the report records what the standard says it should. It does not offer a diagnostic opinion, a second opinion or treatment advice, and it runs only on reports that have already been signed off. The clinical decision stays with the clinician.
We'll show you exactly what an inspector would see, and where a typical report falls short of the standard.
Prefer email? hello@ndlens.com
We'll reply within one working day to find a time.