Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps with (a) diabetes and (b) eating disorder charities to support national campaigns tackling (i) stigma and (ii) media representation of Type 1 Diabetes and Eating Disorders.

The national diabetes programme works closely with charity partners including Diabetes UK who take a multi-pronged approach to reducing stigma experienced by those with all types of diabetes. This includes raising awareness of the complex and serious nature of type 1 diabetes, including type 1 disordered eating (T1DE), providing support to those that experience stigma, and supporting research into stigma and how it can be reduced or prevented.

NHS England is partnering with the National Institute for Health and Care Research to deliver a qualitative evaluation of the five current T1DE pilot sites. A core element of this approach has been engagement with service users to understand their experiences of having the condition, both before and during their involvement with the T1DE service.

The National Diabetes Experience Survey led by NHS England is a further mechanism for understanding the experiences of those living with type 1 diabetes, including T1DE, to inform national and local approaches to improvement.

In response to feedback on the experiences of people of all ages who live with diabetes, NHS England published the guide, Language Matters: language and diabetes, for health care professionals which sets out the good practice principles for interactions with people living with diabetes including around reducing stigma. The guide is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/language-matters-language-and-diabetes/