Nigel Farage Sounds Alarm on Over-diagnosis of Children, Questions Systemic Incentives

The leader of the Reform UK, Nigel Farage, stood in a crowded community hall in Dover on April 24, 2025, and let a bombshell rip through Britain’s political debate: General practitioners are “massively overdiagnosing” children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and mental health conditions.

His comments, which came in the run-up to local elections, point the spotlight again on an issue that leaves many families in turmoil — whether doctors and the school system are inflating diagnoses, perhaps to goose budgets.

Farage’s provacative position, which ultimately relies on distrust of state bloat, calls for some sober thinking about the incentives that are driving the way children get labeled and supported.

Farage’s remarks were made at a campaign event where he said GPs, who are often the first step for worried parents, diagnose too many cases of autism, ADHD and mental health conditions. He said this practice generated a “class of victims” who could have difficulty breaking free from labels placed on them throughout their lives.

“We are now treating children at schools as if they’ve got all sorts of conditions, and it’s risking their lives and boxing them in for life,” Farage said, according to the Daily Mail. He called for independent assessments to replace GP-led diagnoses and said the current system was insufficiently rigorous and objective.

Farage’s critique plays on increasing anxieties about diagnosing trends. A report in 2023 by the Department for Education indicated a 50% increase in the number of children labelled as having SEND in the past decade, with 1.5 million children in England now having SEND status.

Diagnosis rates for autism alone have sky-rocketed, with NHS figures from 2024 showing a 20 percent increase year-on-year in referrals for autism assessments.

Some experts agree with Farage’s skepticism. Medical anthropologist and co-founder of the Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry, Dr. James Davies, has suggested that the criteria used to diagnose disorders like ADHD has essentially been expanding for some decades, potentially encompassing behaviours that previously would have been understood as within normal ranges of development.

In an interview with Mad In America in 2021, Davies said that “systemic pressures” put on GPs, such as the lack of time and pressure from parents, saw overworked doctors refer or diagnose children too quickly.

Central to Farage’s argument is the role of GPs in this process. A study out in 2022 by the British Medical Association found that GPs are under increasing pressure to send children for specialist assessment, with 60% saying they don’t have enough time to assess developmental or mental health concerns properly.

This bottleneck, Farage argues, means ‘that we have to rely more heavily on opinion rather than a comprehensive evaluation’. His demand for impartial evaluations conforms with conservative traditions of eliminating state-run waste, fraud and abuse, and strenghtening accountability.

A 2021 Policy Exchange think-tank report said independent panels could speed the SEND diagnosis process, and save potentially millions of pounds in mis-spent funds, while also making the process more accurate.

Material incentives are likely to add further impetus to the very trend that Farage is criticising. Schools in England get extra money to educate students with SEND, often as much as 6,000 pounds or more per pupil a year.

According to government figures, in 2023 local authorities spent over 10.4 billion pounds on high-needs. These figures will undoubtedly increase along with diagnoses.

A 2024 report on the future of special educational needs and disabilities by the Local Government Association forecast a 4 billion-pound shortfall in high-needs funding by 2026, leading to questions about whether councils, and schools, under immense fiscal pressure were incentivized to seek out diagnoses to tap into resources.

A 2021 National Audit Office report flagged variations in diagnostic criteria from one region to another and that there are regions with twice as many kids with SEND than others, hinting at potential over-identification in some areas.

Farage’s emphasis on systemic problems is echoed among conservative analysts who maintain that bloated bureaucracies value funding over performance.

In a report last year, the Centre for Policy Studies criticised the SEND system as “unsustainable”, citing overlapping assessments and misallocation of resources. The report estimated 30% of high-needs funding is used on paperwork - not helping children.

Farage’s proposal to allow independent assessments could fix such inefficiencies, meaning only those with genuine requirements get help and that ordinary hardworking taxpayers aren’t taken to the cleaners.

The education system’s role in diagnosis also warrants scrutiny. Teachers and school leaders, often untrained in medical diagnostics, frequently initiate the process by flagging students for assessment.

In one 2020 study, by the University of Oxford, 40% of the referrals for SEND come from schools, sometimes on the grounds of poor behavior rather than clinical evidence.

This practice, Farage argues, risks labeling children prematurely, potentially limiting their future opportunities. His remarks resonate with parents who feel their children have been pigeonholed by diagnoses that may not fully reflect their capabilities.

Farage’s broader platform — anti-immigration, anti-net-zero, pro-NHS-reform — also make his attack on the SEND system part of a wider battle against institutional overreach.

In spring 2025 a YouGov poll had placed Reform UK tied at 25% with Labour and the Conservatives, reflecting Farage’s rise in influence. Curiously, a GB News story from April 8, 2025 said Reform UK is in the lead for votes from the disabled, hinting that Farage’s rhetoric would be popular with those who have been angered by the lengthy delays and inefficiencies in the existing support networks.

For example, the NHS announced in 2024 that children are waiting an average of 18 months for autism assessments, a backlog which Farage blames on systemic failure.

The financial stakes are considerable. The high price of SEND support is putting local councils under pressure, with some reporting overspends as a result of increased need.

If indeed diagnoses are excessively inflated as Farage claims, then it is the tax-payers suffering and children potentially being unfairly stigmatised. His call for strong reform matches conservative calls for fiscal responsibility and doubts about runaway bureaucracies.

A report by the Institute of Economic Affairs in 2023 suggested that Bristol could save 1.2 billion per year by cutting SEND assessments and using funds to support front-line services.

Farage’s Dover speech was not so much a detailed policy proposal as a provocation to the status quo. His comments have fueled discussion, with some condemning them as incendiary and others viewing them as a needed critique of a flawed institution.

An increase in SEND diagnoses — not to mention tight purse strings and variation in which children meet proposed criteria — would seem to bear him out.

A 2022 poll by the charity Ambitious About Autism discovered that 25% of parents questioned the accuracy of their child’s diagnosis: suggesting public unease coincides with Farage’s skepticism.

While Reform UK is campaigning for local elections on May 1, 2025, Farage has shown no sign of slowing down. His emphasis on overdiagnosis is part of a larger conservative effort to challenge practices of institutional power and demand accountability.

Whether his push for independent assessments goes anywhere, it has already raised pressure on the systems that shape the futures of children. In any case, the former UKIP leader’s no-nonsense language keeps the conversation about overdiagnosis — and the perverse motives that underpin it — in the public eye for the time being.