Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is the government taking to ensure equal access to eating disorder treatment across the country.

We have established the first national standard to improve access to eating disorder services for children and young people across the country, which states that 95% of children with an eating disorder will receive treatment within one week for urgent cases and four weeks for routine cases. We are investing an additional £79 million in 2021/22 to expand children’s mental health services, including eating disorder services, to meet this standard. We are also investing £58 million in 2021/22 to support the expansion of community mental health services, including eating disorders.

A four week waiting standard for adult community mental health services, including eating disorder services, has been piloted and considered as part of the clinically led review of National Health Service access standards. This consultation closed on 1 September 2021 and NHS England and NHS Improvement expect to publish the response in due course.