Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the recommendations of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, what steps they are taking to ensure that information about the (1) number, and (2) duration of training posts in eating disorders for Foundation grade doctors is collected and scrutinised at the national level by Health Education England; and whether this will include how such junior doctors are taught and assessed against a relevant part of their nutrition curriculum.

In response to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report, NHS England has convened a working group with NHS Improvement, Health Education England (HEE), the Department and other partners to co-ordinate actions being taken in response to the recommendations, taking them into account in planning for improvements to adult eating disorder services.

Foundation training covers core generic skills which will include nutrition and all its facets, one of which is eating disorders. Currently, around 47% of foundation programmes in England offer four-month posts in psychiatry, and management of eating disorders and associated conditions is included in the curriculum and learning objectives for such posts.

The Foundation Programme ensures that newly qualified doctors demonstrate their ability to learn in the workplace, develop their clinical and professional skills in the workplace in readiness for core, specialty or general practice training.

Increasing psychiatry posts and training opportunities in foundation is part of HEE’s current review of the Foundation Programme. There are quality management systems in place to monitor HEE’s performance against those objectives.