How to prepare for a private ADHD assessment in Scotland
By ADHD Scot · July 2026
Not sure whether to go private yet? See Going private for ADHD or autism assessment in Scotland, costs, what to look for in a provider, and shared care explained.
If you have decided to go private for an ADHD assessment, preparing in advance makes a genuine difference, not just to how the day feels, but to the quality of the report you receive and the evidence available to the clinician. Here is what to do before the appointment.
1. Get your GP records
Your GP holds a record of every contact you have had with NHS services, including any referrals to mental health services, psychiatric care, or specialist appointments, even if those happened when you were a child or teenager.
Before your assessment, it is worth contacting your GP surgery and asking them to print off any relevant notes. You do not need to request your full records, in fact, being specific is more useful. Email or call your surgery and ask for notes from a particular time period and type of care. For example:
"I am preparing for a private ADHD assessment and would like copies of any notes relating to psychiatric or mental health care I received between [year] and [year], including any referrals or clinic letters."
In most cases the surgery will print these for you. This is free, you are entitled to access your own records. Once you have them, scan them (or photograph them clearly) and send them to your assessment clinic ahead of the appointment.
These records can be very useful. A referral you barely remember, a CAMHS appointment you attended once, a letter from a psychiatrist you saw briefly as a teenager, all of this provides background that a clinician can use to build a fuller picture of your history.
2. Dig out old school reports
You do not need a full set of school reports, and you do not need glowing ones. Even partial comments are useful, a teacher noting that you were "easily distracted", "could do better if she applied herself", "bright but disorganised", or "struggles to complete work in time" are all relevant.
Comments like these, written at the time with no knowledge of ADHD, can actually carry more weight than anything you say yourself, because they are contemporaneous and from an independent observer. If you can find even a few school reports, bring them.
If you no longer have them, it is sometimes worth contacting your old school directly to ask if records still exist. Schools in Scotland are not required to retain pupil records indefinitely, but many do hold them for a significant period.
3. Think about your symptoms in concrete terms
One of the most common reasons people leave a private assessment feeling like they did not do themselves justice is that they described their difficulties in general terms, or they minimised them without meaning to.
When a clinician asks "do you have difficulty concentrating?", answering "yes, sometimes, but I manage" is less useful than:
"I have never been able to read a book from start to finish. At work I re-read the same email four or five times before it goes in. I miss appointments even when I have written them down."
Before your assessment, write down specific examples of how ADHD symptoms affect your daily life, at work or study, in relationships, with money, with time, with admin, with sleep. Think about things that other people around you seem to find easy that you find genuinely hard.
You do not need to exaggerate. You also should not edit yourself to seem more capable than you feel. The assessment is not a test you can fail, it is an attempt to understand how your brain works.
4. Think about your childhood too
ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition, which means clinicians are looking for evidence that difficulties were present in childhood, even if they were not recognised at the time. You will almost certainly be asked about school, about how you were as a child, and whether there were signs then.
This does not mean you need to have been a visibly disruptive child, many people, particularly women, were not. Quiet inattentiveness, daydreaming, losing things constantly, forgetting instructions, feeling overwhelmed by tasks others completed easily, these all count.
If you have a parent, sibling, or someone else who knew you as a child and can speak to your childhood behaviour, some clinics will ask for a collateral informant to fill in a questionnaire or speak briefly with the assessor. This is not always required but it can strengthen the picture.
5. Check the provider's regulatory status
Before you attend, check whether the provider is registered with Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS). HIS is Scotland's regulator for private healthcare and registration means the clinic has been inspected and meets required standards. Not all private providers are required to hold this registration, it depends on the type of clinician involved. You can check on the HIS website, or use the filter in the compare directory.
6. Ask about shared care before you go
If you receive an ADHD diagnosis and want to start medication, your GP will need to take over prescribing, this is called shared care. Not all GPs agree to it, and some private providers are better than others at supporting the process.
Ask the clinic, before you book or before the appointment: what is their process for shared care? Do they liaise directly with GPs? What happens if your GP initially refuses?
It is much easier to have this conversation before you have paid for an assessment than after. More on this on the shared care page.
7. Send your documents in advance, and keep copies
Most private ADHD assessments in Scotland now take place online. Whether yours is online or in person, send your supporting documents to the clinic before the appointment, not on the day. This gives the clinician time to read them properly rather than skimming them during your session.
When you send documents, label each file clearly so there is no confusion at the other end. For example:
GP records 2012–2019 – [Your Name]School reports – [Your Name]Previous questionnaires – [Your Name]
A clinician who has reviewed your GP notes before you speak will ask better questions. One seeing them for the first time during the appointment cannot give them the attention they deserve.
Keep copies of everything you send. Save them somewhere you can find again, a folder in your email, a folder on your desktop, or a printed file at home. Your assessment report is a document you may need to share with your GP, employer, university, or disability services. The supporting documents you sent are the paper trail behind it. Do not rely on the clinic to hold them for you.
For the appointment itself, also have ready:
- A list of your current medications, including anything over the counter
- The name and address of your GP surgery, the clinic will need this for the report and for any shared care correspondence
- Any previous questionnaires you have completed (e.g. if previously referred to CAMHS or another service)
If your appointment is online: test your connection, camera, and microphone the day before. Find a private space where you will not be interrupted. A clinical interview needs room to go into personal history, background noise or the chance of being walked in on will make that harder.
If attending in person: build in extra time. Arriving flustered or late is not the end of the world, but it adds unnecessary stress to an already significant appointment.
After the assessment
Once your assessment is complete you should receive a written report. This is an important document, keep a copy. It can be shared with your GP, employer, university, or disability services.
If you are diagnosed with ADHD, ask the clinic what happens next: prescribing, titration, shared care transfer. Get a timeline in writing if you can.
If you disagree with the outcome or feel the assessment was incomplete or unfair, you can raise a concern with the clinic directly, and if unresolved, with Healthcare Improvement Scotland. An assessment that does not result in a diagnosis is not necessarily a wrong one, but you are entitled to understand the reasoning.