You’d think that politicians would bother to check the facts before making sweeping public statements. However, as politicians have recently proven, you’d be very much mistaken.
You may have seen the comments that Nigel Farage made earlier today where he claimed that doctors are 'massively over-diagnosing' children with SEND and mental health conditions.
At best, Farage’s comments are ill-informed. At worst, they are outrageous statements based on zero evidence that are designed to negatively influence public attitudes towards neurodivergent people.
While it pains us to republish these quotes, we thought it may be beneficial to provide the information that counter these inaccurate opinions. An Autistica ‘fact-check’, if you will.
Farage says:
...when you get to 18 and you put somebody on a disability register, unemployed, with a high level of benefits...
Farage’s ire is grossly misplaced. Firstly, the disability register isn’t a thing. While it’s true that some local authorities allow residents to register their disability with them to make other processes easier, there is no national register for disabled adults. It simply does not exist.
We know from our research that while just 3 in 10 autistic people are in work, many more want to be in employment. Our findings echo similar research that showed 79% of autistic adults who do not work or are on benefits want to work.
In which case, our question to politicians would be: what initiatives are you introducing to ensure that workplaces are truly neuroinclusive?
Farage says:
So many of these diagnoses, for Send before 18, for disability register after 18 – so many of these have been conducted on Zoom, with the family GP. I think that is a massive mistake. I think you’re the family GP, and I’ve know your family for generations, and you’re saying to me there’s a real problem here with depression, or whatever it may be, it’s quite hard for me as your GP to say no.
Here, Farage is conflating two VERY different things. Yes, SEND is a broad term, but mental health conditions such as depression are not the same as neurodivergence. Luckily, last year we wrote a statement alongside our friends over at mental health charity MQ on this very subject, which you can find here.
Farage says:
I don’t think any of these allocations should be done by family GPs. I think [they] should be done independently.
The thing is that these assessments ARE done independently! They are carried out by specialist clinical psychiatrists, not GPs. Children and adults both typically must wait years for an assessment, with NHS England’s most recent stats revealing that 212,964 people are waiting for an autism assessment as of December 2024.
What’s more, our own research shows that the most frequently reported waiting times are 1-1.5 years for children and 2-2.5 years if you’re an adult. If you’d like to find out more about average waiting times, we’d encourage you to read our report, Not a Priority.
Misinformation across the political spectrum
But it's not just Nigel Farage. In recent months, we have seen inaccurate and harmful comments like this from across the political spectrum, including Government ministers. We are calling on the Government to engage with the facts and take action to ensure all autistic and neurodivergent people can get the support they need.
We will continue to work with policymakers to help politicians make informed decisions, and with the media to challenge misinformation.