New research suggests that the state of support and services for autistic adults in England is waning.

The report, autism self-assessment exercise, looked at councils between July and November 2016.

It found that waiting times between a referral and an assessment have increased significantly, with the average waiting time to be seen now 16 weeks.

This is compared to 13 weeks in 2014.

According to the research, the more money invested into a specific service the better the results. “The difference between the areas who had received more funds and those who stated they needed more money was reflected in the RAG ratings,” it said.

Likewise, fewer councils (48 per cent) said they had training plans for all health and care staff. The report found that many councils still have teams carrying out social care assessments where fewer than half of their assessors have received specialist training.

Mark Lever, Chief Executive of the National Autistic Society, said: “These figures give us a glimpse of the autism diagnosis crisis in England, suggesting that adults are on average waiting almost 25 per cent longer for a first appointment than they were when the last assessment was carried out two years ago.

“There’s a striking variation between different areas across the country, with the longest average wait being 125 weeks. The average wait across all local areas is 16 weeks, which exceeds the three months recommended by NICE.

“Autistic adults and their families frequently tell us how life changing a diagnosis can be. It can explain years of feeling different and help unlock crucial advice and support, which can make a huge difference to an individual’s prospects. But these figures suggest that getting this support is a huge problem too. A diagnosis should trigger a social care assessment but this appears to be happening in just 45 per cent of local areas, down from 54 per cent in 2014.”