Wes Streeting is punching down on young people with ADHD

The health secretary’s announcement of a review into ADHD and autism assessments is another example of his missing the point, writes Kat Brown. Post-Covid Britain is on its knees, and its young people need hope and promise of a brighter future – not being told, wrongly, that they are ‘pathologising feelings’

This morning, Wes Streeting announced a review into “overdiagnosis” of ADHD and autism. Overdiagnosis is the health secretary’s preferred way of reframing the 500,000-strong waiting list for assessment in the UK, added to the myriad waiting lists for every other health problem affecting people’s lives.

The news comes as the number of flu patients taking up hospital beds across England has risen by more than 50 per cent. Free flu jabs have been significantly limited by the government this year, along with those for Covid, despite a severe new strain being identified. Warnings have gone out begging the public not to go to A&E for hiccups, sore throats and ingrowing toenails. But, yes, by all means come after the disorders that, left untreated, have very real consequences both for the individual and for society.

Streeting has blustered about assessments “pathologising feelings”, apparently missing the fact that his GPs have long doled out antidepressants as a sticking plaster for everything from grief to menopause. Indeed, the government’s health strategy appears to be putting its fingers in its ears and collectively going “la-la-la”. The NHS estimates that one in four adults has depression, anxiety or some other mental health condition, with 8.9 million people in England on antidepressants, up from 6.9 million a decade ago. Streeting has said this is “cause for concern”. You bet it is!

None of this has come out of nowhere. There has been a global pandemic in which over 232,000 Britons have died. Long Covid has had an impact on at least 1.8 per cent of the population. Even before the Covid inquiry report, public trust in the government had been damaged, perhaps irrevocably. People lost the opportunity to achieve shared life goals and children were separated from classmates. And those with latent health conditions were isolated with no means of structure or support.

As to prevalence, we rightly no longer institutionalise disabled people. Much work has been done to combat stigma, so conditions are more publicly apparent. There is a growing appreciation that, with support, disabled people can achieve their potential. Strictly Come Dancing does an excellent job of showing this every year.

The government is concerned that 4.4 million working-age people claim disability or incapacity benefit, up 1.2 million since before Covid. Young people are dropping out of the workforce – coincidentally just as rises in national insurance figures mean that traditional entry-level jobs in hospitality and retail are being cut. Streeting conflates diagnosis with people being “written off”, yet many people who receive personal independence payment (PIP) are in work. Perhaps Streeting might instead ask himself why so many working people need benefits to keep them afloat.

Streeting would apparently prefer that people just hide what was ‘wrong’ with them and carry on regardless (Reuters)

Children with ADHD become adults with ADHD. If they are identified in childhood, they stand a marked improvement in avoiding STDs, teenage pregnancy, crashing a car, financial mismanagement, divorce or dying by suicide. If they don’t, they stand a chance of being one of the one in four adults in British prisons with ADHD (this figure rises to 30 per cent in the young people the government claims to be so worried about). As children are assessed, their undiagnosed parents are starting to ask questions of their own.

Streeting would apparently prefer that people just hide their problems and carry on regardless. Many of us have, for years. I am in the privileged position of being able to write to you in The Independent. I am also a recovering alcoholic who spent years living in secret chaos and who was once an exceptionally gifted shoplifter. From the outside, few people would have known that there was a problem. When I heard my life’s story coming out of other people’s mouths, I saw hope.

Hope is what this government is missing. Nobody is seeking a diagnosis for fun, but for an explanation. Nor is medicine set in stone. What was once “hyperkinetic disorder of childhood” is now ADHD. What was once “Asperger’s syndrome” is now part of autism spectrum disorder. When IVF failed for my husband and me, we were given the vague, nothing-y diagnosis of “unexplained infertility”. A source of hope for us both was that our experience might contribute to the science that could help future couples. There is so much yet to be discovered and understood.

And hope is what Streeting and the government need to inspire in people now. Not everything can be solved by throwing an antidepressant at it, nor by removing funding and hoping the problem will go away. Just because you hide the devastation underneath, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. But a change of heart – and some understanding – from Ebenezer Streeting could mean real change for Britain, and for the young people so damaged by Covid.

This article was amended on 11 December 2025. It previously inaccurately stated that PIP was only available to people who are in work, but that is not the case.