Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to tackle (a) eating disorders and (b) body image issues among young people in schools.

Poor body image is a factor in eating disorders and other mental health problems. The additional £1.4 billion the Government is making available for children and young people’s mental health services up to 2020, includes £150 million specifically targeted at improving support for young people with eating disorders. The green paper ‘Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision’ set out proposals for new mental health support teams to provide further trained and clinically-supervised support to young people in school.

The Government has also funded the provision of information and advice to schools. MindEd (https://www.minded.org.uk/) is a free online portal that provides training for all adults working with children and young people about mental health problems. It includes specific information on eating disorders. The Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Association has also produced advice on how to teach pupils in all four Key Stages about mental health. This includes specific advice on age-appropriate teaching about body image and eating disorders in secondary school.

The Government has sought views, via a thorough engagement process, on the content of Relationships Education and Relationships and Sex Education, and on the status of PSHE – including on issues such as body image and eating disorders. The findings will inform draft regulations and guidance for schools, which will be subject to further consultation.