Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that the level of service support that children with eating disorders (a) is not reduced and (b) does not end when those children become adults.

The Government is committed to providing good quality eating disorder services for both children and adults.

For children and young people aged between eight and 18 years, the Government is investing £150 million (£30 million per year) to develop 70 new or expanded community eating disorder services and staff. This means at least 3,350 children and young people a year will receive swift, effective eating disorder treatment in the community — for many this will mean they will be treated earlier and no longer need to go into hospital.

To understand better whether children and young people are receiving the care they need through to adulthood and to incentivise local services to improve care for young people reaching adulthood, NHS England has set up and is monitoring a Commissioning for Quality and Innovation scheme (CQUIN) for individuals transferring from children and young people’s mental health care to adult mental care which will span from 2017 to 2019. CQUIN incentivises commissioners to deliver clinical quality improvements and drive transformational change.

To further improve adult eating disorder care a pathway, together with detailed implementation guidance for providers, is under development by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health in partnership with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. The pathway is being fully informed by the available evidence and the views of experts and will increase healthcare professionals’ awareness of the early signs and symptoms of eating disorders so that they are able to refer without delay.