Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the waiting times for children and young people to start community eating disorder treatment, based on the data published by NHS England.

The Government keeps waiting time data for children and young people’s community eating disorder services under close review, drawing on the statistics published regularly by NHS England.

We recognise that demand for eating disorder services has increased in recent years and that performance varies across the country. That is why we are reforming eating disorder services so that children and young people can access timely, effective support when they need it, rather than after their condition has escalated.

This shift towards prevention and stronger community-based support underpins the new National Health Service guidance for children and young people’s eating disorder services, published last month. The guidance makes clear that children and young people should receive timely, joined-up care delivered as close to home as possible.

The Government is also recruiting 8,500 additional mental health workers across the NHS to increase capacity and ensure that help is available when and where it is needed. NHS England continues to work with integrated care boards to improve performance against national access standards and reduce unwarranted variation in waiting times.