Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to establish and fund nationally an Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder pathway.

In 2019/20, NHS England and NHS Improvement funded seven community eating disorder teams for children and young people to pilot a programme to improve access, assessment and treatment for children presenting with Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). The training from these pilots is now available for providers of children and young people’s community eating disorder services.  In 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement also commissioned training on ARFID for staff delivering treatment in inpatient children and young people’s mental health services. NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently reviewing provision for children and young people’s with ARFID to inform further activity to support adult patients.