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 the potential merits of commissioning national training to support the workforce delivering eating disorder services for children and young people.

The Government recognises the importance of ensuring that the workforce delivering eating disorder services for children and young people has the right skills and training.

NHS England already has extensive eating disorder training in place for staff across both mental and physical health services, covering awareness and specialist up-skilling. This includes e-learning and simulation training for doctors, general practitioners, and primary care clinicians, nurses across all four branches, acute hospital staff, dietitians, and pharmacy teams.

Following the 2017 Ombudsman report Ignoring the Alarms, NHS England worked with Beat and the Royal College of Psychiatrists to strengthen training on the safe medical management of eating disorders. More recently, NHS England has commissioned further specialist training, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Eating Disorders Credential, family-based therapies, cognitive behavioural therapy for eating disorders, and Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder training.

We will continue to work with NHS England to ensure that the workforce is appropriately trained and supported to deliver high-quality, evidence-based care.