If you have searched this question, you have probably already found two contradictory answers. One says ADHD can only be diagnosed by a psychiatrist. The other says a one-day course will qualify you.
Neither is right. The honest answer is more useful, and it starts with reading what the guidance actually says rather than what people say it says.
What NICE actually says
There is a phrase that circulates widely online, attributed to NICE, describing who can diagnose ADHD. It says diagnosis must be made by a "suitably qualified practitioner".
That phrase does not appear in NICE guideline NG87. Not in the recommendations, not in the full guidance. It has been repeated so often, including by organisations selling ADHD training, that it now reads as though it were official.
Here is the actual wording of recommendation 1.3.1:
“ADHD should only be diagnosed by a specialist psychiatrist, paediatrician or other appropriately qualified healthcare professional with training and expertise in diagnosing ADHD.”
The difference matters more than it first appears. "Suitably qualified practitioner" is vague enough to mean almost anything, which is precisely why it gets quoted by people selling short courses. The real wording sets out three distinct requirements, and you need all three:
- You are an appropriately qualified healthcare professional
- You have training in diagnosing ADHD
- You have expertise in diagnosing ADHD
Training and expertise are listed separately, and that is deliberate. A certificate demonstrates the first. Only supervised practice produces the second.
Which professions can assess ADHD?
NG87 does not restrict diagnosis to psychiatrists and paediatricians. It names them, then explicitly extends to "other appropriately qualified healthcare professional". In practice that opens the door to a range of registered professionals:
- Doctors registered with the GMC, including psychiatrists, paediatricians and some GPs working in specialist roles
- Nurses registered with the NMC, particularly those in mental health or neurodevelopmental services
- Practitioner psychologists registered with the HCPC, including clinical, counselling and educational psychologists
- Occupational therapists and speech and language therapists, also HCPC registered
- Social workers, registered with Social Work England, where working within a multidisciplinary neurodevelopmental service
Being on the list is not the same as being cleared to practise. Three things decide that, and none of them is your training certificate:
Your professional registration. Your regulator sets the boundaries of your scope of practice, and expects you to work within your competence. Your regulator will not tell you “yes, you may diagnose ADHD”. It will expect you to be able to justify that the activity sits within your scope and your competence.
Your employer’s governance. In an NHS or established private service, ADHD assessment needs to sit inside an agreed pathway with named responsibilities. Being trained does not mean your job plan permits it.
Your indemnity cover. More on this below, because it is the thing most people discover last and it stops more careers than the guidance does.
If you are an OT or SLT, the honest picture is that many allied health professionals use ADHD training to contribute to a multidisciplinary assessment rather than to diagnose independently. That is a valuable and legitimate role. If independent diagnosis is your goal, confirm your position with the HCPC and your indemnity provider before you spend money on training.
The four things you actually need
Training is one component. Here is the full set.
1. Professional registration
A relevant core qualification and current registration with the GMC, NMC, HCPC or Social Work England. There is no route to ADHD assessment that bypasses this. There is no standalone “ADHD assessor” qualification in the UK that confers the right to diagnose on someone without an underlying clinical registration.
2. Training
Structured training covering diagnostic criteria, structured interviewing, and the reasoning that turns information into a defensible conclusion. This is the part you can buy, and the part that takes the least time.
3. Supervised experience
The part everyone underestimates. UKAAN, the UK Adult ADHD Network, is unambiguous about this in relation to its own courses: attendance at UKAAN training courses alone is not sufficient to enable an individual to conduct adult ADHD diagnostic assessments independently.
That is a training provider telling you that its own training is not enough on its own. Take it seriously, and treat any provider implying otherwise with caution.
What fills the gap is supervised casework: assessments you conduct with someone experienced reviewing your reasoning, plus ongoing case discussion and peer supervision.
4. Indemnity
If you assess within an NHS role, you are usually covered by your employer, but you should confirm that ADHD assessment sits within your agreed scope and job plan rather than assuming it does.
If you assess independently, you need your own professional indemnity, and providers will ask about your registration, your training, your supervision arrangements and your intended scope before they quote. Arrange it before you see your first patient, not after. Some practitioners complete training and then discover they cannot get cover for the work they trained to do.
What good training should cover
Course content varies more than the marketing suggests. A day that only teaches you to administer one structured interview has taught you a procedure, not an assessment skill. Look for:
- DSM-5 diagnostic criteria and how they apply to adults specifically
- Structured diagnostic interviewing, such as the DIVA-5, and when each tool is appropriate
- Developmental and childhood history, including how to gather it when informants are unavailable
- Collateral information and what to do when it is thin or contradictory
- Rating scales, including their limitations. NG87 is clear that diagnosis should not be made solely on the basis of rating scale or observational data
- Comorbidity and differential diagnosis, which is where most of the real difficulty lives
- Clinical reasoning, including how to reach a defensible decision and when not to diagnose
That last point is the one to look for. Recognising diagnostic uncertainty, and being willing to conclude that further information is required rather than reaching for a label, is a core competence. Training that only teaches you to confirm ADHD has not prepared you for the cases that matter.
The quality standard almost nobody mentions
In August 2024, UKAAN published the Adult ADHD Assessment Quality Assurance Standard, known as AQAS, in Frontiers in Psychiatry. It is the most concrete published statement of what an adequate adult ADHD assessment looks like, and it is largely absent from the training marketing you will encounter.
Several points are worth knowing before you train:
- Assessment should sit within a full psychiatric and neurodevelopmental review, not as a standalone ADHD questionnaire exercise
- It requires good interview skills, using semi-structured interviewing with open questioning and probing for real-life examples of symptoms and impairment
- Evaluating functional impairment is central, not an afterthought to symptom counting
- The standard describes core competencies required of the assessor
- Diagnosis should be linked to an appropriate post-diagnostic discussion
- Two hours or more is recommended for an adequate assessment, including the post-assessment discussion
That last figure is a useful benchmark, both for judging services you might join and for setting your own standards. AQAS is explicitly intended to complement formal training rather than replace it.
How to get supervision
This is the most common sticking point, because supervision is not something you can buy off a website the way you can buy a course.
Practical routes:
- Within your existing service. If your organisation runs a neurodevelopmental pathway, ask to sit in on assessments and then to conduct them under review. This is the cleanest route and the one most people overlook because it involves asking.
- Shadowing an experienced assessor. Observation before practice is standard and reasonable to request.
- Peer supervision groups and case discussion. Ongoing rather than one-off, and valuable well past the point you feel competent.
- Formal clinical supervision with an experienced ADHD clinician, arranged privately if your employer cannot provide it.
Expect to work under supervision while building case experience rather than treating it as a box to tick once.
NHS or independent practice?
In the NHS, indemnity is usually handled by your employer and supervision is more readily available, but ADHD assessment must sit within an agreed pathway and your job plan. The constraint is organisational rather than personal.
Independently, you control your scope but carry the full weight of indemnity, supervision, governance, record keeping and data protection yourself. Demand for adult ADHD assessment is high, which has drawn in providers whose assessment quality has been publicly criticised. If you go independent, the AQAS standard is a good place to anchor your practice, and being able to demonstrate that you meet it is a genuine commercial advantage.
A realistic timeline
There is no fixed path, but a common shape looks like this:
- Already registered in a relevant profession, with clinical experience in mental health or neurodevelopmental work
- Training, which can be a single day for core assessment skills
- Supervised assessments over the following months, alongside ongoing case discussion
- Independent practice, once you and your supervisor agree you are ready and your indemnity is in place
Anyone promising you the finished article by the end of a Saturday is selling you the first step and calling it the whole journey.
Common questions
Do I need to be a prescriber?
No. Assessment and prescribing are separate activities. Many ADHD assessors do not prescribe and refer on for medication where it is indicated.
Can I diagnose after one training course?
Training is one of the requirements, not all of them. Most people should expect to work under supervision initially while building case experience. Any provider suggesting a certificate alone makes you an independent diagnostician is misrepresenting both NG87 and UKAAN’s own position.
Do I need a psychology degree?
No. You need a relevant clinical registration. Nurses, OTs, SLTs, social workers and doctors all appear in ADHD assessment pathways.
Does adult training cover children?
No. Child and adolescent assessment uses different tools, different informants and different developmental considerations. Training in adult assessment does not transfer.
How long should an assessment take?
UKAAN’s AQAS recommends two hours or more, including post-assessment discussion. Treat much shorter assessments as a warning sign.
Where to start
If you are registered, working in a relevant setting, and want to move into ADHD assessment, the sequence that works is straightforward. Get trained in the core assessment skills. Arrange supervision before you need it. Sort your indemnity before you see anyone. Then build case experience with someone reviewing your reasoning.
The training is the part you can book today. The rest is the part that makes you an assessor.
ADHD Training Hub runs a one-day live online ADHD assessor training course for UK professionals, covering DSM-5 criteria, structured diagnostic interviewing including the DIVA-5, rating scales, differential diagnosis and clinical reasoning. Groups are capped at 20 places.