We’ve told an independent review there’s been a rise in people with mental health conditions, ADHD and autism, and an increased demand for support.

And we’ve highlighted this growth has potentially been exacerbated by the impact on individuals of delays in being able to access assessment and diagnosis.

We’ve urged the government to make counselling and psychotherapy more widely available to all who wish to access them - and said that ‘diagnosis should not be primary gateway to support.’

The government’s independent review was launched by former Health Secretary Wes Streeting in December to investigate the prevalence, trends and inequalities associated with mental health conditions, ADHD and autism. An interim report was published in March, and a full report is due in the summer.

Response informed by member surveys

Our response was informed by member surveys and other evidence.

These include a survey specifically on the review which was launched to members earlier this year, our annual workforce mapping survey, and our 2025 Mindometer survey.

Survey findings[i] included:

  • 78% of respondents to our member survey reported that their clients are presenting with common mental health conditions as the primary or a significant issue, with 44% of those clients having disclosed a formal diagnosis to their therapist.
  • 9% reported that they felt receiving a diagnosis had a mostly positive impact on a client’s sense of identity and wellbeing – a further 37.4% reported the impact was mixed, with 2.5% reporting it was a mostly negative impact.
  • The most common barriers therapists said clients reported when seeking a formal diagnosis were long waiting times (97.1% of respondents), cost of private assessment (74.9%) and lack of referral pathways (38.3%)

Strengthen choice and access

A key part of our response has been to highlight the work that counsellors and psychotherapists are already doing in supporting people – and to explain that most of this takes place outside the NHS.

We’ve said that our members could take on more work, if it was made available to them.

Our response said: “Strengthening choice and access will deliver more responsive services and effective outcomes, that will ultimately help to achieve the Government's commitments to raise the healthiest generation, to increase healthy life expectancy, reduce suicide and reduce economic inactivity.”

We also said: “A substantial proportion of support for mental health conditions, ADHD and autism is already being delivered by counsellors and psychotherapists, much of it outside the NHS and therefore not captured in official service data. We want the review to recognise this existing contribution and to emphasise the impact recruiting more counsellors and psychotherapists into statutory services could have on improving access, reduce waiting times and relieve pressure on NHS pathways.”

Wider choice of interventions

In our consultation response, we also said:

  • Our member surveys found that a sizeable proportion of clients who are seeking support for issues related to ADHD and autism, are doing so without a formal diagnosis.
  • Counselling and psychotherapy services routinely support people whose level of distress and issues do not map neatly onto diagnostic thresholds.
  • We’ve said we recognise the benefits diagnosis can bring for some service users (such as validation and access), but our members have reported it has mixed impact and there are drawbacks to diagnoses too.
  • Existing NHS services for mental health conditions often prioritise CBT approaches. We’ve highlighted that there’s strong and growing, evidence that providing a wider choice of intervention is crucial to achieving the very best outcomes.
  • People want and need quicker access to a range of evidence-based psychological therapies, reflecting differences in need, preference and complexity.

Read our response to the Independent review into mental health, ADHD and autism (172kb).

[i] Unpublished BACP Member Survey on the Independent review into mental health conditions, ADHD and autism (2026) [Number of survey respondents: n=207]