Mental Health and Neurodiversity M&A Landscape in 2026

Overview of Mental Health and Neurodiversity M&A in 2026

The UK mental health and neurodiversity market continues to attract sustained M&A and investment activity, albeit unevenly across sub-sectors. Activity remains strongest where businesses demonstrate scale, delivery capability and credible routes to growth across multiple payer types.

Outsourced NHS Talking Therapies remains an active area, particularly for tech-enabled providers capable of delivering large volumes at scale. Mindler’s acquisition of ieso Digital Health UK reflects continued demand for operators with NHS commissioning relationships, digital infrastructure and delivery models that can be scaled to meet access and capacity challenges.

The ADHD and autism assessment market has grown rapidly, driven by prolonged NHS waiting lists and rising awareness. This has underpinned significant capital deployment into providers such as Psychiatry UK (receiving investment from QPE), ADHD 360 (acquired by Keys Group) and Psicon (acquired by Onebright). However, this growth phase is now being tested. NHS-funded assessment volumes are increasingly capped at ICB level, and the sector is facing greater clinical, regulatory and political scrutiny. The operating environment has become materially more complex, particularly for providers heavily exposed to a single funding stream.

Alongside clinical provision, workplace wellbeing and neurodiversity services continue to gain traction. Optima Health’s acquisition of Care First and Agathos’s backing of Lexxic illustrate growing employer demand for structured mental health and neurodiversity support. This part of the market is increasingly viewed as a core component of workforce strategy rather than a discretionary benefit, which will support further consolidation going forward.

Education linked mental health services are also emerging as a credible investment theme. LDC’s investment in myHappymind highlights investor appetite for early-intervention, school-based models that are preventative, scalable and aligned with public sector priorities.

The net effect is that deal flow remains robust, but investor focus has sharpened. Capital is concentrating around platforms that combine scale with payer resilience, not as a rejection of NHS exposure, but as a preference for models where revenue is diversified, defensible and operationally controllable. Businesses able to balance NHS, employer, education and private pay income, while maintaining clinical quality and governance, are likely to remain at the centre of M&A activity.