A reported doubling in the use of Ritalin is a “warning sign” that parents could be trying to “medicate” away behavioural problems, the Ofsted chief inspector has said.

Amanda Spielman said the source of behavioural problems could be located in the family, in the education system or children’s peer groups.

According to The Times, about 1.5 million prescriptions for Ritalin and other drugs used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and improve concentration were prescribed by the NHS last year.

This compared to fewer than 700,000 ten years earlier. 

Speaking to The Times, Ms Spielman suggested it was implausible that so many young people required these types of drugs. 

“The fact that it seems to have become the norm for a whole swathe of the social structure to medicate as a response to behavioural problems feels like a very big warning signal,” she said.

“If there’s that many behavioural problems, what is it telling us about what ought to be preventable?

“Is it located in the family? Is it located in the education or the peer group? You don’t just want to try to block out the symptoms, you want to say, is there something that can be solved?”

Some people have claimed that parents may exaggerate their children’s symptoms to get the drugs because they improve concentration, and can result in children getting more time to sit their exams. 

Ms Spielman said pupils should not be taking medication to improve exam performance. 

“These are not exams designed for an Übermensch [superhuman] generation,” she said.

She said she had been shocked by the “astonishingly high” number of children on medication in one Ofsted focus group in a deprived part of Essex.