This guideline covers children and young people with autism spectrum disorder (across the full range of intellectual ability) from birth until their 19th birthday. It covers the different ways that health and social care professionals can provide support, treatment and help for children and young people with autism, and their families and carers, from the early years through to their transition into young adult life.

This guideline should be used alongside the NICE guidelines on autism spectrum disorder in under 19s: recognition, referral and diagnosis and autism spectrum disorder in adults: diagnosis and management.

Last reviewed: 11 July 2024

We have checked the evidence and plan to update the recommendations on psychosocial interventions. For more information see the surveillance decision.

Prioritisation board agreed that effective diagnosis is likely to have significant benefit for individuals, their families and carers. They recognised this is an area with significant system need.

How we prioritise updating our guidance

Decisions about updating our guidance are made by NICE’s prioritisation board. For more information on the principles and process see NICE-wide topic prioritisation: the manual.

For information about individual topics, including any decisions affecting this guideline, see the summary table of prioritisation board decisions.

Next review: This guidance will be reviewed if there is new evidence that is likely to change the recommendations.

Recommendations

This guideline includes recommendations on:

Who is it for?

  • Healthcare professionals
  • Social care practitioners
  • Children and young people with autism, and their families and carer.

Guideline development process

How we develop NICE guidelines

This guideline was previously called autism: the management and support of children and young people on the autism spectrum.

Your responsibility

The recommendations in this guideline represent the view of NICE, arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. When exercising their judgement, professionals and practitioners are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences and values of their patients or the people using their service. It is not mandatory to apply the recommendations, and the guideline does not override the responsibility to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual, in consultation with them and their families and carers or guardian.

All problems (adverse events) related to a medicine or medical device used for treatment or in a procedure should be reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency using the Yellow Card Scheme.

Local commissioners and providers of healthcare have a responsibility to enable the guideline to be applied when individual professionals and people using services wish to use it. They should do so in the context of local and national priorities for funding and developing services, and in light of their duties to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to reduce health inequalities. Nothing in this guideline should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with complying with those duties.

Commissioners and providers have a responsibility to promote an environmentally sustainable health and care system and should assess and reduce the environmental impact of implementing NICE recommendations wherever possible.