Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 June 2021 to Question 10548 on NHS: Staff, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that eating disorder services can recruit and retain the staff needed to meet rising demand for those services.
We are investing approximately £1 billion to improve care for adults with a range of severe mental health problems, including eating disorders, in England by 2023/24. The majority of this funding is to be spent on staffing and contracting the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, with an ambition to recruit 10,000 new staff in community mental health services, including eating disorder services
The NHS People Plan seeks to improve staff retention, through areas such as flexible working, health and wellbeing and equality, diversity and inclusion. In addition, the NHS Retention Programme supports staff to stay whilst keeping them well to ensure we can retain staff, including those working in eating disorder services.