Community sector

Waiting list (data for February 2026)

• The total reported community services waiting list in England stood at 1.17 million in February. This is compared with 1.07 million in February 2025. 
  
  
• The total number of CYP waiting for community services was 320,900, compared with 298,533 in February 2025.  
  
  
• There were 847,169 adults on the community waiting list, compared with 767,553 in February 2025. 

Long waits (over 52 weeks) (data for February 2026)

• There were 83,872 children and young people (CYP) waiting for 52 weeks or more, equating to 26.1% of all CYP on the community waiting list. This is compared with 64,492 (21.6%) in February 2025.
  
  
• There were 33,155 CYP waiting for 104 weeks or more, which is 10.3% of all CYP on the community waiting list. This is compared with 13,169 (4.4%) in February 2025. 
• There were 10,317 adults waiting for more than 52 weeks for treatment, compared with 9,702 in February 2025. This makes up 1.2% of the adult waiting list (1.3% in February 2025).  

Referrals and contacts (data for January 2026)

• There were 1.82 million referrals received to community services (as shown in Figure 4), compared with 1.86 million referrals in January 2025. 
  
  
• A total of 9.07 million care contacts were reported across all submitters, compared with 9.58 million in January 2025. 

Figure 4
Total referrals received by community services