Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve the rates of early intervention in treating eating disorders in England.

The Government’s 2014 Autumn Statement announced additional funds of £30 million recurrent per year from 2016-17 to transform services in England for the treatment of children and young people with eating disorders.

The Government has introduced a new waiting time standard for the treatment of children and young people with an eating disorder, setting an expectation that by 2020, 95% of those referred will start treatment within one week if the case is urgent and within four weeks if the case is non-urgent.

In July 2015, guidance was published by NHS England on the service model for community eating disorder services for children, young people and their parents and carers that has been shown to improve access and outcomes, reduce relapse rates and need for inpatient admission:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/cyp/eating-disorders/

Through the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), NHS England has commissioned the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health to develop implementation guidance for an eating disorders pathway for adults, building on the recent NICE Clinical Guideline (May 2017) for the recognition and treatment of eating disorders. This will be published in summer 2018 and will be fully informed by the available evidence and the views of experts by experience.