Deciding · United Kingdom
If you are considering going private, this is what actually differs.
Private ADHD providers look interchangeable from their homepages. They are not. The differences that matter are not tone or design — they are who assesses you, what the fee covers, what happens in the months after diagnosis, and who ends up holding the prescription. This page is about that comparison. It does not tell you to go private, and it does not rank anyone.
Check the NHS routes first
There are three routes to an assessment in the UK and two of them are NHS-funded. Going private is a reasonable choice, but it should be a choice, not a default.
01 — The six comparisons
What to compare, in order of how much it costs you to get wrong.
Adults, children, or both
Child and adolescent assessments are a different service with different clinicians and usually a higher fee. Some providers only see adults; some see children from a specific age.
Who carries out the assessment
Consultant psychiatrist, specialist nurse, or a psychologist who cannot prescribe. This matters most if medication is a likely part of your plan.
What the fee includes
Report, feedback appointment, letter to your GP, follow-up. Ask which of these are inside the fee and which are billed after.
Whether titration is included
Titration is the weeks of dose adjustment after diagnosis. Some providers bundle it into a twelve-month price; others charge per appointment.
Shared care position
What the provider says about handing prescribing back to your GP — and, separately, whether your GP practice will accept it.
The twelve-month total
Add assessment, titration, prescriptions and reviews. That number, not the headline fee, is what you are actually choosing between.
02 — Provider records
The providers we have researched so far.
Factual records only: fee, what it includes, who it serves, titration, shared care and follow-up, each with its source and the date we read it. 7 of 9 records are currently complete. No ratings, no rankings, no paid placement, and no fee to us from anyone listed.
03 — Before you pay
Five questions worth asking in writing.
- What is the total cost over twelve months if I end up on medication?
- Who carries out the assessment, and can they prescribe?
- Is titration included, and how many appointments does that usually take?
- What happens if my GP declines shared care?
- What is your current wait, and what happens if it changes after I pay?
04 — Read alongside this
The three things people get caught out by afterwards.
- What an ADHD assessment costs in the UK — what is billed separately, and the twelve-month picture.
- Medication, titration and shared care — how the months after diagnosis actually work. Never doses.
- How we check what we publish — our sources, and what each kind of source can and cannot show.
Questions
Common questions
- 01
- Is a private ADHD diagnosis accepted by the NHS?
- A private diagnosis is a clinical opinion, and NHS services and GPs can take it into account, but no GP is obliged to take over prescribing on the strength of it. Whether your GP will enter a shared care agreement is decided by your practice, not by the provider you paid. Ask your GP before you book, not after.
- 02
- Why is the assessment fee not the real cost?
- The assessment fee often covers the appointment and a report. Titration appointments, prescriptions, private prescription charges and annual reviews are frequently billed separately. Two providers with a similar headline fee can differ by hundreds of pounds over the first year once medication is involved.
- 03
- Do I have to go private to be seen quickly?
- Not necessarily. In England, Right to Choose lets your GP refer you to an independent provider with an NHS contract, funded by the NHS. Waiting times vary and can still be long, but it costs you nothing. It is worth checking that route before paying.
- 04
- Do you rank or recommend providers?
- No. We publish factual records with sources and dates, and we do not score clinical quality because we have no defensible way to measure it. We take no fee, commission or referral payment from any provider.
- 05
- What if a provider will not tell me what happens after diagnosis?
- Treat that as information in itself. Follow-up, titration and shared care are where private ADHD care most often breaks down. A provider that will not put its follow-up model and prices in writing is one you cannot compare.