Westminster Hall

Thursday 29th February 2024 Westminster Hall

Thursday 29 February 2024

[Sir Robert Syms in the Chair]

Backbench Business

Thursday 29th February 2024 Westminster Hall

Colleges Week

Thursday 29th February 2024 Westminster Hall

13:30

[Peter Aldous (Waveney) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered Colleges Week 2024.

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Robert, and I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting this debate during Colleges Week, which runs from Monday until tomorrow. I should also point out that I chair the all-party parliamentary group for further education and lifelong learning, the secretariat for which is provided by the Association of Colleges, to which I am grateful, among others, for the briefings and support they have provided ahead of the debate.

This debate essentially falls into three parts: first, celebrating the great work that colleges do all around the country; secondly, highlighting where Government policy and support are working; and thirdly, pointing out the areas where more work and attention are required so that colleges can realise their full potential for the benefit of the people and the communities they serve.

It is important, first, to celebrate the great work that colleges are doing. All around the UK, they are an essential part of our education system. They are firmly embedded in their local communities, where they are fully cognisant of the opportunities and challenges and the strengths and weaknesses of their local economies. They enable people of all ages and backgrounds to realise their full potential. They are key players in boosting local regeneration and levelling up and in eliminating the gaps in skills and productivity, which are in danger of ever widening. They also play a vital role in preparing people for the jobs of tomorrow, which, all of a sudden, are with us today in areas such as digital, artificial intelligence and the low-carbon fields.

Colleges touch all our lives. English colleges educate 1.6 million students every year and employ approximately 103,000 full-time equivalent staff. Some 925,000 adults study or train in colleges, and 608,000 16 to 18-year-olds study in colleges. The average college trains 950 apprentices, and 100,000 people study higher education in a college. Twenty-three per cent of 16 to 18-year-olds and 27% of adult students are from minority ethnic backgrounds. Twenty-six per cent of 16 to 18-year-olds in colleges have a learning difficulty or a disability, and 58,000 college students are aged 60 and over. In summary, colleges do their job very well. Ninety-two per cent of colleges were judged to be “good” or “outstanding” for overall effectiveness at their most recent inspections. At times, however, colleges feel that they are doing their job with one arm behind their backs, and I shall touch upon that shortly.

I will briefly highlight the great work that East Coast College does in Waveney. It now operates from two campuses, in Lowestoft in my constituency and in Great Yarmouth in the constituency of my right hon. Friend the Member for Great Yarmouth (Sir Brandon Lewis). It fully understands the challenges of coastal communities, the communities in which it is deeply immersed, and works very closely with local authorities, local businesses, the James Paget University Hospital, CEFAS—the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, where the Government’s marine scientists are based in Pakefield next to Lowestoft—and the two universities that cover the area, the University of East Anglia in Norwich and the University of Suffolk, which has its headquarters in Ipswich but operates across Suffolk.

In Lowestoft, East Coast College is an active member of the place board, of which I am also a member, which has overseen the projects carried out as part of the town deal. Its work focuses on two areas: first, the need in the health and care sector to support an ever growing elderly population. It has put in place the Apollo project —not a journey to the moon, but a two-year workforce programme designed to address recruitment and retention challenges in the health and social care sector. Secondly, opportunities are emerging in the energy sector. Among other projects, there are the offshore wind farms anchored off the East Anglian coast and the Sizewell C nuclear power project just down the coast.

In recent years, significant capital improvements have been carried out at East Coast College. Those include the Energy Skills Centre in Lowestoft and the eastern civil engineering and construction campus at Lound, midway between Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth. At present, the college’s challenges centre more on revenue funding, and its needs mirror those of the rest of the sector, to which I shall now turn.

The good news is that, in recent years, there has been a realisation of the vital role that colleges play in providing people with the skills they need to realise their full potential, to address regional inequalities and to ensure that the economy fires on all cylinders. Some good initiatives have been put in place, such as the lifelong learning entitlement, and funding has improved, albeit from a low base. That said, significant challenges remain; some are structural and long term, and others derive from the cost of living crisis and the long and sharp tail of covid.

The Local Government Association points out that

“the national employment and skills system is too centralised”,

“short-term” in outlook, and that

“no single organisation is responsible or accountable for coordinating programmes nationally or locally. This makes it difficult to plan, target and join-up provision.”

It also identified that

“poor-quality, insufficient and fragmented CEIAG”—

careers education, information advice and guidance—

“is a persistent and key barrier to youth employment”,

notwithstanding the introduction, finally, of the Baker clause in the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022.

The Edge Foundation focuses on the problem that is all around us: the skills shortages that are getting worse. The shortages are numerous and have grown significantly. The rate of skills investment is in decline, and skills shortages have significant costs for UK businesses, the economy and the environment. The engineering sector is important to me locally, as engineering skills will be much in need to fuel the transition to a low-carbon economy. EngineeringUK, in its “Fit for the future” engineering apprenticeships inquiry, has highlighted the variability and quality of training provision and the problems in recruiting teachers and trainers.

Colleges Week normally takes place in the autumn. This year, however, for good reason, it has been brought forward to the spring—not only so that it takes place in advance of the general election campaign, to provide the sector with every opportunity to set out its stall, but so that urgent representations can be made ahead of next week’s Budget to meet many of the challenges that I have highlighted.

I confess that I was expecting the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon), to be here, but it is great to see the Minister for Schools in his place, because he and I have discussed this issue a great deal. I would be most grateful if he conveyed some of these asks to my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer in advance of his Budget statement next Wednesday.

As I have mentioned, there are skill gaps across the country in all sectors of the economy. To eliminate those gaps, I urge the Government to invest the extra money raised from the immigration skills charge to enable colleges to tackle the urgent priorities identified by employers in the local skills improvement plans that are now being rolled out across the country and those that are found in relation to the increased number of skills shortage vacancies revealed in the latest Department for Education employer skills survey.

At the Conservative party conference in Manchester in October, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister rightly announced a 10-year plan to give young people a better start in life through the advanced British standard, with more hours, a broader curriculum, and extra help for those who have struggled up to the age of 16. Those ambitions are the right ones, but if they are to be achieved —if there is to be any chance of having the teachers, the trainers and the facilities in place to deliver them—we must start investing now. To do that, three issues need to be addressed.

First, the pay gap between those teaching in colleges and those teaching in schools must be closed. It has been widening in recent years and now stands at £9,000 per annum. That pay gap cannot persist if the advanced British standard is to be a success.

Secondly, colleges are disadvantaged when it comes to VAT. Unlike for schools, VAT is not reimbursed for colleges—it cannot be recovered. Colleges in England were reclassified as public sector organisations back in 2022 and are now subject to all the controls that apply to academies, but, unlike academies and schools, they are unable to reclaim VAT under the refund scheme in section 33 of the Value Added Tax Act 1994. That could be addressed by amending that Act. The funds that would be released, totalling around £210 million, could then be reinvested, helping colleges to deliver the improvements to the school system that the Government seek.

Thirdly, as I mentioned, covid has had a long and sharp tail, impacting harshly on young people’s education. The Government recognise that and are providing funding for tuition support to help those with the greatest need to obtain the necessary grounding in English and maths and to catch up on the vocational courses where assessments were deferred. That is good news, but the indications are that the demand for those lessons and courses is still growing. It is estimated that approximately 40,000 more students than last year need to resit their English GCSEs, with 20,000 needing to resit maths. I therefore urge the Minister to do all he can to ensure that the funding for that tuition support is extended.

I am reaching my conclusion, Sir Robert. I am sure that others in this debate will refer to FE and colleges as being the Cinderella of the education system. Indeed, that was right in the past, but my sense is that all parties across the House have recognised the error and folly of that. We are now, after a long time, travelling down the right road, with the importance of vocational learning as provided by colleges being acknowledged and accepted by all. However, we are driving down this road in third gear and we now need Government to provide resources, support and more policies so that we can quickly and seamlessly move into top gear. If we do that, we shall provide opportunity for many and eliminate all those stubborn gaps that I have referred to a great deal during this speech.

13:44

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

It is always a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Robert. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Waveney (Peter Aldous) on securing this Backbench Business debate and on marking and celebrating Colleges Week.

I want to speak in support of the colleges of our nation, which are such a significant part of our education system. My hon. Friend outlined some powerful statistics when he was making his case so eloquently a moment ago, but one in particular jumped out at me, which is that more than 1.5 million students—1.6 million, in fact —are educated at colleges in England every year.

Colleges play a critical role in delivering the skills that our nation and our economy need. I visited many colleges some years ago when I worked on apprenticeships, and they were great visits. However, there is one feature from them all, which I want to draw out and comment upon: the links between colleges and local employers. Through those links, colleges not only provide the workforce that companies need now, but develop the skills programmes for the future.

We are seeing huge changes in the global economy, as countries face the challenges of sectors and routes to market that are going digital. There is also the overarching challenge of net zero and the consequent decarbonising, and how that is creating new skills, new industries and a requirement for significant training. Colleges are at the forefront of meeting those challenges through skills, based on partnerships and local insight, through apprenticeships, with each college training 950 apprentices, as my hon. Friend mentioned, and through professional development, as careers change and people of all ages need to reskill as industries develop. Further, colleges are training tens of thousands of people aged over 60. It is therefore important to keep investing in these areas for our future national prosperity.

The UK has not valued colleges enough over past decades. There has been some kind of underlying assumption that the system should really be focused on university degrees, which are right for so many but not the only definition of excellence. I see opportunity and excellence much more widely; I see it in our college network. Spreading the word about the range of choices that people have is one of the benefits of Colleges Week.

I should also congratulate the Minister on a policy change that has quite recently put apprenticeships on the UCAS website. That is a game changer. The feedback I have had from school and group visits in Harrogate and Knaresborough is that that has been a highly successful initiative and people have become aware of apprenticeships. It has almost been like giving them a parity of esteem, which has not been present before. It has certainly boosted knowledge in a very positive way.

We are obviously here supporting colleges today, and my hon. Friend the Member for Waveney has made a powerful case. It is also fair to say, however, that colleges have not fully received the attention that their success and scale merit. My hon. Friend said colleges were formerly a Cinderella service. That might be a little strong and people have woken up to that; however, Colleges Week presents a great opportunity to pay tribute to all our colleges and all that they achieve.

I want to highlight a major development taking place this week at Harrogate College, and also to congratulate the team at Harrogate College and the Luminate Education Group on their work on it. That development is a £20 million scheme to replace the main building at the college and construct a renewable energy skills hub. In effect, there will be a totally new campus, which is very exciting and a real game changer.

Preliminary work started this week and full construction starts next month. Energy efficiency is being built in and will help the college to deliver its plan to become carbon-neutral by 2035. The upgrade will see state-of-the-art facilities on campus, including a mock hospital ward, an electric vehicle workshop and a construction centre that will focus on renewables and the building methods of the future. Basically, that directly relates to my earlier points about how important the links between colleges and local companies are for the skills that are needed; indeed, it is proof of the wisdom of that policy.

The college principal, Danny Wild, has kept me posted throughout the development of this great project, and I was able to speak with Ministers and do all that I could to help to get it over the line. Of the total budget of £20 million, £16 million comes from the Department for Education’s further education capital transformation fund—and transformation is indeed what we are talking about with this development. It will make Harrogate College future proof—the college’s words—and consolidate its position as the leading provider locally of T-levels. It is anticipated that the new development will be open for students in the summer of 2025, which really is not long for a project of this scale and ambition.

Apart from providing better facilities for the students, this development will send a major signal that Harrogate College and all that it does are both aspirational and of the highest quality. Basically, students will be equipped with the skills for a new era. When we see college investment and college success, it is not just about small initiatives at the college itself; the economy of the entire area will benefit. We have a strong local economy, but the companies within it often report difficulties in filling vacancies—the unemployment rate locally is 1.8%. This project will help to fill those vacancies, because it will help to tackle skills shortages.

So I say well done to the Harrogate College team. I look forward very much to visiting the college shortly, and I know that there are positive developments right across the country. There is much to celebrate all over the country, but I just wanted to highlight and celebrate this local news. I look forward very much to hearing what the Minister has to say about ensuring that this sector is front and centre in our education system.

[Sir Robert Syms (in the Chair)]

We now move to the Front-Bench wind-ups, starting with the Opposition spokesman.

13:52

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Robert, and to speak in this debate.

It is right that we pay tribute to the hon. Member for Waveney (Peter Aldous) for securing this debate. I know that he is incredibly passionate about further education and the skills sector, and he has raised a number of very important issues, which I will address. I also acknowledge his work on the all-party parliamentary group on further education and lifelong learning—I am a passionate supporter of that group—and work of the Association of Colleges, as the secretariat to the group.

I thank all our colleges up and down the country for the vital contribution they make to our national skills system, and to young people and adult learners across the country. In addition to noting the support and advice from the Association of Colleges, it is worth our reflecting on the support and advice that comes from the Sixth Form Colleges Association, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, and our qualification providers, including City & Guilds and others, which have also played an important role in the Future Skills Coalition. In addition, this week, FE Week and City & Guilds put on the annual apprenticeships conference, which played an important part in pulling everybody together during this important week.

I acknowledge the contribution made by the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Andrew Jones), who made important points about engagement with employers and about how Harrogate College is helping to meet local skills and workforce needs. That is a story that all our colleges could share, so it was good to hear those examples.

The hon. Member for Waveney said that colleges play an important role around the UK in our skills system and are firmly embedded in our communities. They understand the needs of our local economies, and have played an important role in the development of our local skills improvement plans. Like many other college leaders, Tracy Aust, the principal of West Thames College in Hounslow, who also oversees the Feltham skills centre, has been pivotal in pulling together those voices so that we can better match the skills needs in our local economy with the provision coming through our colleges. That also helps local authorities and other players to develop a deeper understanding of the community learning requirements.

In that context, our FE institutions truly stand as pillars of knowledge and ambition, but they are also beacons of adaptability. They work together to foster an environment that encourages lifelong learning. One of the best parts of my role as shadow Minister is going to colleges across the country to meet and listen to learners and employers. That includes West Thames College and the Feltham skills centre, which do important wrap-around work on employability and mentoring. Logistics apprentices from the Institute of Couriers are in Parliament today to celebrate their achievements. I pay tribute to the chairman of the institute, Carl Lomas, for all he does, with great enthusiasm, including building links and investing in colleges. The apprentices I saw today feel they know him personally. Those relationships and that social capital around our systems are really important.

I have spoken to students studying T-levels, apprenticeships and higher technical qualifications, and adult learners upskilling, at City and Islington College. I have spoken to people working and learning at the National College for Nuclear, and health and aerospace apprentices in Milton Keynes, Newcastle and Liverpool. Last week, I visited South and City College in Birmingham to see the important new facilities for robotics, electric vehicles and so on. This is not just about connecting young people and adult learners with the content of learning, but about giving them hands-on experience with new technologies.

I am launching my colleges tour over the next few months, which will focus on how we are engaging with small and medium-sized enterprises in our communities and what the barriers are. SME apprenticeship levels have been dropping significantly—they have fallen by 49% since 2016—and we absolutely must turn that around.

As a nation, our No. 1 priority is to grow our economy so that we can invest in our public services and greater opportunities for all. To achieve that ambition for growth, we need to invest in human talent to grow our skills and our workforce across all sectors where there are skill shortages. Colleges play an important role in delivering skills for green infrastructure, our creative industries, our life sciences sector, our public services and our everyday economy, including hospitality. All those things require workforces with specialised skills. It is vital that people across our country have pathways into high- quality vocational training, secure, enjoyable work, and opportunities to upskill. I have talked to adult learners who have told me that the qualifications they did five or 10 years ago have left them out of date, compared with those coming through the system now. Given that nine out of 10 adults are likely to need some retraining in the next decade, that will be an important part of all our futures.

Colleges are uniquely placed to deliver on this combined mission of economic growth and improved life chances for all. They provide an exceptionally diverse range of education and training courses to meet the needs of local economies. They are centres of lifelong learning for people of all ages and at all levels, as the hon. Member for Waveney so effectively highlighted. But just as it is important to acknowledge the successes of colleges this week, we must also acknowledge the challenges they face, a number of which were eloquently outlined by the hon. Member.

As examples, apprenticeship numbers have fallen, real-terms funding for the further education sector has fallen to record lows, and vital decision-making powers have been taken away from local communities. The Conservatives have also overseen more than a decade of decline in skills and training opportunities. I say that because apprenticeship starts have fallen by 200,000 since 2017—it is important to recognise the figures. In every region, apprenticeship starts have fallen since 2010, and small and medium-sized enterprise engagement with apprenticeships has fallen by 49% since 2016.

[Mr Robin Walker (Worcester) (Con)]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way. I apologise to the Chair, as I will not be able to stay to the end of the debate as I have a meeting with the head of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service to talk about progression and issues of this sort.

With apprenticeships, it is very important that we compare like with like. It is a great thing that all apprenticeships now involve a year of work and a qualification. That was not the case under the last Labour Government.

I want to put on the record my tribute to the Heart of Worcestershire College and the Worcester Sixth Form College, for the fantastic work they do. I commend to both Front Benches the report from the Education Committee on post-16 qualifications, which made a number of recommendations, including increasing the number of youth apprenticeships and setting a target for the proportion of apprenticeships that lead people into work.

[Seema Malhotra]

I thank the hon. Member for his contribution and for sharing the work of the colleges in his area, with which I know he is well connected. I acknowledge his work as Chair of the Education Committee, including on that report.

It is important that we are clear about the figures, but it is also important to recognise that things have got harder, particularly for small businesses, since the implementation of the levy. We need to address those challenges. For level 2 and level 3 apprenticeships, the numbers are falling in proportion to apprenticeships as a whole—these are challenges that the Education Committee has rightly highlighted. It is important to make sure that there are pathways post-16 for those who may not have the same qualifications at GCSE. That is a point I will refer to further in my remarks.

It is also true that the Government are on track to miss the 67% achievement rate, with almost half of apprenticeships not being completed. There are a range of reasons for that. Level 2 and level 3 apprenticeships have seen some of the worst falls; there has been a 69% fall in the number of starts at level 2 and a 21% fall in the number of starts at level 3. In addition, too many young people and adult learners say they are not aware of the opportunities available to them. Colleges have also seen real-terms funding cuts under successive Tory Governments. Since 2010, spending per pupil has fallen by 14% in colleges and 28% in school sixth forms.

Labour will put colleges at the heart of our plans for breaking down barriers to opportunity and boosting Britain’s skills. Central to that is our plan to develop technical excellence colleges, enabling colleges in local skills improvement plan areas to specialise in the particular needs of their local economies and businesses, driven by LSIP priorities. We know that Whitehall does not have all the answers for what is needed in our local communities. That is why we will continue to build on the already begun process of devolving and combining power and budgets for skills and adult education to combined authorities and local areas, so that the right decisions and right priorities are led by those with the most local information, who are in the right places.

These plans will empower FE colleges to take a lead in responding to local needs. We see it as important that we reform the apprenticeship levy to become, in part, the growth and skills levy, giving businesses and employers the flexibility they need to invest in skills and training and to continue to support SMEs to take up apprenticeships, too. An estimated £3 billion in unspent levy has gone to the Treasury since 2019 that could have been spent on more training opportunities for learners and, through that, on training providers too, supporting capacity to grow the sector. The system is not working as it needs to be. Bringing more flexibility is a policy backed by the Manufacturing 5, the British Retail Consortium, techUK, the Co-operative Group, City & Guilds—the list goes on.

It is vital that young people are aware of their post-16 options so that they know which routes are open to them and how to take them. That is why Labour wants to train more thsn 1,000 new professional careers advisers. I recognise the point made by the hon. Member for Waveney about fragmented advice and guidance, but we want to train those new advisers for students in our colleges and schools and introduce two weeks of compulsory work experience for every student to connect them earlier with the workplace.

There are real concerns about the chaotic roll-out of T-levels and the phasing out of many overlapping qualifications among college staff and young people—a serious issue that has been raised with me. The Protect Student Choice campaign estimates that 155,000 students could be left without an appropriate course of post-16 study if the Government go ahead with these plans in this way. That is why Labour will ensure that all students are able to complete their qualifications and will pause and review the proposed removal of courses until we can be sure that these reforms will not prevent young people from pursuing high-quality vocational qualifications.

In conclusion, boosting Britain’s skills will be a national ambition for Labour, led by our new body Skills England, which will help provide that overarching national skills framework, connecting that with regional and local need, and will bring together businesses, training providers and unions to meet the skills needs of the next decade across all our regions. I am proud to say that colleges will be at the heart of that ambition.

14:07

[The Minister for Schools (Damian Hinds)]

It is a great pleasure to see you in the Chair, Sir Robert. I join colleagues in congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Waveney (Peter Aldous) on securing this debate in Westminster Hall on this important subject. He rightly mentioned that he and I have talked about these topics many times over—I think it is fair to say—many years. I know he has a fervent passion for and deep knowledge of the subject, and I thank him for what he does with the all-party parliamentary group on further education and lifelong learning. I join him in thanking and congratulating the Association of Colleges. Like many colleagues, I had the opportunity earlier this week to go over the road—the other side of Parliament Square—to the AOC awards event. It was great to meet an award winner from my local college in Alton and its other campus in Havant, but also to see the huge variety of people benefiting from all that colleges have to offer. Both my hon. Friend and my hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Andrew Jones) spoke with passion about the importance of colleges and the great work they do in educating and training people of all ages and backgrounds, as well as the key role they play in communities. They rightly talked about the challenges they face, and I do not argue with any of that.

I am the Minister for Schools, but I still know there is no more important subject than colleges. I see every day that we have great schools educating our children, giving them a great education and grounding to take them on whatever path they choose at age 16. Of course, we also have strong higher education institutions, delivering world-class higher education to young people and equipping them with the high-level education and skills they need. We then have further education colleges, which are the filling—if you like—in the education sandwich. Like the best sandwich options, there is a variety to choose from because colleges do just about everything, including all the things I have just mentioned. They do basic skills, English and maths and so-called level 3 provision. More recently, there has been the introduction of T-levels. They do apprenticeships, as we have been talking about, and I will come back to adult learning. As my hon. Friend the Member for Waveney reminded us, FE colleges also do HE, as well as pre-16 provision for certain groups of young people. To cap it all, some colleges even have their own nursery—they are really providing the full range of education. We are not talking about jacks of all trades, because they do not just do lots of things; they do them very well. The latest figures show that approximately 92% of colleges were judged to be good or outstanding at their most recent inspection, which is quite an incredible figure.

The Secretary of State and the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education visit colleges around the country frequently. I should say, by the way, that the latter would have loved to be here today. He phoned me this morning to say so, and to ask me to pass on his best wishes, in particular in celebration of Colleges Week. He is not able to physically be in two places at once; otherwise, he would have been here. The Secretary of State and the Minister meet staff and students and see at first hand some of the excellent work they are doing, as I have had the opportunity to do in previous roles in the DFE. They are astounded by the range and breadth of high-quality provision on offer in fantastic facilities.

My hon. Friend the Member for Waveney rightly alluded to another key role that FE colleges carry out, which is acting as agents of social mobility. Many learners in FE come from disadvantaged backgrounds, so our colleges are essential for ensuring that individuals from all backgrounds are supported to progress into employment or further learning. It is fair to say that for many years, colleges were unsung heroes, doing fantastic work without ever really getting commensurate recognition for that work. That has changed now, because everybody understands and recognises the importance of what they do. This debate is a great example of that recognition.

The skills agenda, in which colleges play a critical role, is one of my Department’s key priorities. Colleges are delivering our radical skills reforms, helping individuals with basic skills needs right up to challenging the highest performers to reach their potential, raising the stages of technical education through the delivery of apprenticeships and the introduction of rigorous T-levels.

It is easy for us to say that colleges are great, and that we recognise all they do, but we need to back that up with support and investment. That is why we are making major investment in post-16 education, in which colleges play a huge part, with an additional £3.8 billion over this Parliament for education and skills. In particular, throughout this Parliament, we have consistently increased overall funding for 16-to-19 education year on year, including an extra £1.6 billion in 2024-25 compared with 2021-22—the biggest increase in 16-to-19 funding in a decade. FE colleges, like all 16-to-19 providers, have benefited from that investment. We are investing £3 billion in capital between 2022 and 2025 to improve the condition of the post-16 estate, deliver new places in post-16 education, provide more specialist equipment and facilities for T-levels and deliver institutes of technology.

We recognise that the issues colleges are facing are not just about whether they have enough funding and how to make the funding stretch to deliver everything they need to do, but about systems, procedures and bureaucracy. Colleges have told Government that we need to address those things, and we have listened. That is why we have consulted on reforming the further education funding and accountability systems, and last year issued our response. We have committed to simplifying funding systems and creating a single adult skills fund and a single development fund. We have already started delivering on those commitments and will continue this work to reduce the bureaucracy associated with funding. We have set out a much clearer approach to support an intervention for colleges, and will also remove duplicative data collection and take steps to simplify and improve audit. All these things will help to minimise burdens on colleges and let them focus their efforts on delivering that excellent education and training.

Of course, FE would not be what it is without teachers and teaching. The quality of teaching and leaders is the biggest determinant of outcomes for learners, and that is why we are investing £470 million over the financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25 to support colleges and other providers, and to address key priorities, including on recruitment and retention. That funding has already fed through to colleges and other providers via increased 16-19 rates and programme cost weight increases from last September.

It is part of a wider programme to support the sector to recruit excellent staff. That includes a national recruitment campaign to strengthen and incentivise the uptake of initial teacher education, teacher training bursaries and the Taking Teaching Further training programme. We also announced £200 million to improve teacher recruitment and retention by giving those who teach key shortage subjects a payment of up to £6,000, tax-free, per year in the first five years of their career. For the first time, that applies to those teaching eligible subjects in all FE colleges.

Let me turn to some of the comments made by the hon. Lady who speaks for the Opposition, the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra). This debate has not been primarily party political, and nor should it be. We are celebrating Colleges Week, and that is something on which colleagues right across this House agree. I welcome a number of the things that the hon. Lady said, but there are a couple that I cannot quite let go, particularly on the subject of apprenticeships.

My hon. Friend the Member for Worcester (Mr Walker) was quite right in saying that, if we are going to talk about apprenticeships, we must talk like for like. I am afraid that, before 2010, there were some people who, when asked about the quality of their apprenticeship, did not know that they were on an apprenticeship. We have changed that and underpinned the apprenticeships programme with guarantees of quality: the minimum length of the course; the minimum amount of time in college; the creation of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education; and, critically, employer-designed standards. That has made a very solid set of very high- quality apprenticeships. I would urge the hon. Lady and her party not to pursue the plans and policy that they appear to be—not to undermine those apprenticeships or have fewer of them, and instead create a new quango.

[Seema Malhotra]

I thank the Minister for his comments, and we do not need to get into a debate today—there are many other opportunities for that. He is right that it is important that we do not create dividing lines where we do not have them, in an area that needs both stability and long-term planning, but I want to challenge him on the point he has made. It is true that apprenticeships starts have fallen, and I am not saying that we have not also supported some changes through the passage of time. However, we all know that there are challenges, such as employer involvement in start-ups, employer fatigue due to the difficulties with the current apprenticeship system and the drop in SME engagement, and it is really important that the Government acknowledge those challenges.

It is also important not to misrepresent Labour’s call for a reform where employers, if they so chose, could spend up to 50% of their apprenticeship levy more flexibly. Too much of that levy is being returned to the Treasury because employers are unable to spend it on any learning. For most employers, the reform would not make much of a difference because they are only able to spend about 50% of their levy, and that would not change. Perhaps the Minister might also know that, if we see more growth in the economy, we will also see more of the levy coming in and greater apprenticeships there too.

[Damian Hinds]

Again, let us not have a party political debate—that is not the nature of this discussion today. I can absolutely assure the hon. Lady that I have not misrepresented the Labour party’s policy in the slightest. She then went on to repeat it, which is to say that there would be less money guaranteed to be available for apprenticeships. That would surely lead to a move away from those high-quality apprenticeships that I mentioned. I understand the attraction of voices saying that the levy is not a good way of doing things, but I have to tell the hon. Lady that it addresses a fundamental problem—

[Seema Malhotra]

Will the Minister give way?

[Damian Hinds]

Absolutely, and I will come back to the fundamental problem in a moment.

[Seema Malhotra]

I thank the Minister again, but I think he does not fully understand the Labour policy and that may be because he has not engaged with it in detail. The point on the growth and skills levy is that the opportunity to spend on more modular courses and more flexible learning, creating the opportunity to build qualifications through more modular approaches, could support more engagement with learning and contribute to a reduction in the early ending of apprenticeships, where the targets of apprenticeship completion are not even being met. That is a real issue.

[Damian Hinds]

I assure the hon. Lady that if there is any misunderstanding about the Labour party’s policy, it is not because people have failed to engage with it; it is because it is not clear—and one great benefit of our apprenticeship system is that it is clear. The approach of the apprenticeship levy resolves one of the fundamental questions of investing in human capital, training and people, which is the so-called free rider problem.

For many years, some employers invested strongly in their workforces and then some of the members of those workforces, after a couple of years of training, would get up and go to the competitor. The levy is precisely to make sure that the whole of our economy and the whole of industry has a like interest in developing those skills and developing investing in the potential of people. I advise the hon. Lady to be careful in deciding to get rid of that and replace it with a new and unneeded quango.

I turn to my hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough, who also spoke about the centrality of apprenticeships and the quality of them. He spoke about the importance of colleges to the whole local economic area. I too represent an area with a particularly low level of unemployment, even though unemployment across the country is low compared with historical norms—it is at slightly less than half the level it was when I and my hon. Friends the Members for Harrogate and Knaresborough and for Waveney came into Parliament in 2010.

Particularly in areas of even lower unemployment, however, skills matching becomes vital for the local economy. I also join my hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough in congratulating both Harrogate College and the Luminate Education Group on their work on the renewable energy skills hub. That is a great example of colleges being future-looking, forward-looking and innovative, making sure we are equipped with the skills for the future and creating facilities that contribute to that.

I come now to my hon. Friend the Member for Waveney, who has brought us to this Chamber today—and we are all grateful to him for doing so. He listed some of the several ways in which colleges are vital to our economy and society. He too spoke of the importance of colleges in their local communities. He reminded us that that is about people of all ages—including those who might not have had that great an experience coming through education the first time, who can have another chance, and those who had a fantastic experience the first time around, who can further develop their skills. It is also about the jobs of tomorrow and making sure we can continue to adapt and that in so doing we offer social mobility to people throughout the country.

My hon. Friend also talked about productivity, which is so important here. We know that there has long been a big productivity gap—since the year I was born and beyond, and I am 54—between this country and the United States and Germany in particular. It has improved, but it is still a gap and we need to move further. Making sure we can match skills to where they are needed and hone those skills is incredibly important.

My hon. Friend also spoke about the importance of colleges themselves as big employers in local areas, and we should never forget that. He also discussed the importance of working with employers, a subject also covered by our hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough. In particular, I note the work of Suffolk New College in leading on the local skills improvement fund for my hon. Friend the Member for Waveney’s area. Indeed, I pay tribute to all three colleges serving his local area—East Coast College, Suffolk New College and West Suffolk College.

We are getting close to a fiscal event, and my hon. Friend quite rightly put in his Budget bids, which will have been heard. He also talked about some of the progress made. I agree that the value of the Baker clause is not just what it does directly, but the symbolism and the message it gives that all children should know about the full range of what is available to them at the age of 16. Some of those children will be better suited to going to a school sixth form, some will be better suited to going to a sixth form college and some will be better suited to going to an FE college. Some will be better suited to a largely academic route and some will be better suited to a technical and vocational route. Having those options made known at a suitable time in that journey is really important.

There are also T-levels. Of course, colleges are not the only places that deliver T-levels, but they are at the centre of that great reform. They offer more hours in college and bring English, maths and digital skills right into integration with the core vocational subjects and, crucially, the nine-week or 45-day industrial placement. When I meet employers or young people who have done T-levels, that is the thing they always talk about the most: the opportunity to apply what they learn in college directly in a workplace and develop the workplace skills that we know are so valued by employers. By the way, they bring an opportunity to see a young person in action in the workplace for an extended period.

There are the higher-level technical qualifications and the advanced British standard, which is in development now. My hon. Friend the Member for Waveney was quite right that we are developing that landmark reform to remove fully the artificial divide between the academic and the vocational. In doing that, we need to start investing now—and we are investing now. That is such an important point to make, and it is understood across Government.

When people think about a college, probably the first thing that comes into their head is a picture of a building, but my hon. Friend and I, and everyone here, know that it is all about people. That is why those investments in people are so important, including the extension of the levelling-up premium to further education colleges for the first time. The Teach in FE recruitment campaign is running, and there is the Taking Teaching Further programme. We know that there is a particular importance to, and sometimes a challenge in, getting people with recent industrial experience—those “on the tools”—into college to impart those skills onwards. There are FE teacher training bursaries worth up to £30,000, depending on the subject, tax-free, in the academic year 2024-25.

I will close by thanking everybody who has taken part in this debate, particularly our hon. Friend the Member for Waveney for tabling it and convening this important discussion. It was informative to hear from him and others about local issues, successes and, of course, how much we value our colleges—“Love our Colleges”, to coin a phrase from Colleges Week. The one clear thing coming from this debate is that we all recognise the importance, value and role of our colleges, as the strapline that I just mentioned makes clear.

I have set out how we are backing our recognition of colleges through investment and support by increasing funding, investing in facilities and estate, reforming accountability and funding to reduce burdens and investing in programmes to support and boost the further education workforce. I hope and believe that those things will benefit colleges and support them to deliver. I know that we ask colleges to deliver a lot these days, but that is because we know that they can and do deliver incredibly well.

14:29

[Peter Aldous]

I am a shade disappointed, not by the quality of the debate but because there was high demand to take part and we have not had as many colleagues as I would have hoped for. There are loads of demands on people’s time. However, what we have lacked in quantity, we have made up for in quality. I am the odd person out in this debate; I am the only participant who has not had a Front-Bench role, so it has been interesting to hear the views of those on the frontline.

The three of us on the Government Benches—I, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Hampshire (Damian Hinds) and my hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Andrew Jones)—have all been here since 2010. Colleges are in a better place, generally speaking, than in 2010, particularly in terms of the quality of their estate. That has certainly improved, but we need to move on. While the shiny new buildings are important, we need the teachers and trainers to be able to help with the learning in those colleges. That is where we have a particular problem. Look at the energy sector that East Coast College is having to deal with: we have a crying need for welders and fabricators, but there is a real challenge in getting those teachers and trainers.

Lord Baker fought for the Baker clause for years. He took too long to get it, but he got it. At some stage, I would welcome some information on how it is going down in practice, because when I go around the community I represent, I cannot say, “Ah! That is a result of the Baker clause.” If we pull a lever in this place, it does not automatically lead to a gear change in the rest of the country.

The one disagreement we have had is on the issue of apprentices. If one looks at where we were in 2010 and where we are today, we are generally in a better place, but the journey has not been smooth—there have been ebbs and flows along the way. I am slightly confused by some of the statistics. It may be that we were in a better place two or three years ago than today. One of the challenges is to get SMEs properly involved in the apprenticeship system.

That brings us on to the levy. The levy is a great idea, and the Government were right to introduce it, but there have been teething difficulties and challenges with money being returned to the Treasury. The Opposition spokesperson, the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra), and I have been in events where I have said that we need to press ahead with a review now, rather than waiting for next year after all the hullabaloo of the election. It must take place now, so that we can iron it out and get it on the right journey.

Finally, here are my funding asks of the Chancellor. This is ultimately about ensuring a level playing field. Colleges are not on a level playing field with schools and academies when it comes to VAT. They are not on a level playing field when it comes to what teachers are paid.

At the beginning of the time that I have spent in this place, there was the problem of colleges having to pick up the pieces for young people who, for whatever reason, had not acquired basic literacy and numeracy skills in secondary education. That situation has improved dramatically, but covid has thrown a big spanner in the works and the colleges are having to work very hard to address that. It is not going to go away immediately, and that is why they need those funds to be extended.

Sir Robert, thank you for bearing with me for a few extra minutes. It has been a good debate.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered Colleges Week 2024.

14:35

Sitting suspended.

Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Thursday 29th February 2024 Westminster Hall

[Mr Philip Hollobone in the Chair]

15:00

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2024.

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Hollobone. Across the UK, 1.25 million people have eating disorders, which include binge eating disorder, bulimia, anorexia, other specified feeding or eating disorders, and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder.

Left undiagnosed and untreated, eating disorders can be silent killers. Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, and results from one study have shown that a third of people with binge eating disorder are at risk of suicide. For too long, sufferers have been left feeling trapped and alone. Urgent action is needed to tackle this rising epidemic.

The theme for Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2024 is avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, or ARFID. The condition is characterised by a limited range of food intake. Sufferers may eat only “safe” foods, and can avoid entire food types. That means that they have difficulty meeting their nutritional and energy needs, and can experience weight loss and health problems.

ARFID can come from sensory sensitivity and fear of negative consequences from eating. Beliefs about weight and shape do not necessarily contribute. Be Body Positive, an NHS-backed psychoeducation website, has shared a story of what life can be like with this condition. Tahlia was diagnosed with ARFID when she was 20. She was initially misdiagnosed as a fussy eater before eventually being misdiagnosed with anorexia as a teenager as a result of her significant weight loss. Because she was misdiagnosed, she missed out on early vital treatment. In her own words:

“Growing up, I felt misunderstood and isolated because of my eating habits…Knowing that ARFID exists has been a validating experience, connecting me with a community of people who share similar challenges.”

The helpline run by Beat received more than 2,000 phone calls from people looking for support for ARFID last year—2,000 only last year! However, awareness of ARFID is still very limited. Misperceptions that it is just fussy eating leave sufferers like Tahlia feeling alone. There is no solid data on how many people in the UK have ARFID; it could be anywhere from less than 1% of the child and adolescent population to over 15%.

Because of those perceptions, accessing specialist treatment can be a lottery. There is a lack of standardised treatment pathways for ARFID, and it is hard to find out what support is available. A recent survey of NHS websites found that only six of the 55 NHS providers of eating-disorder services for children and young people explicitly stated that they provided treatment for ARFID, and only one of the 49 NHS providers of adult eating-disorder services said the same—one out of 49!

Rigid stereotypes of eating disorders persist in other areas. Despite their high prevalence, eating disorders are frequently misunderstood and viewed as a lifestyle choice. Contrary to popular belief, eating disorders are most common among people with severe obesity. I have been appalled by stories of people being turned away from treatment because their body mass index was too high, and have long supported Hope Virgo’s “Dump the Scales” campaign to change that.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines state that single measures such as BMI should not be used to determine whether someone receives treatment. However, those guidelines are not being uniformly implemented. Some services are still using those barriers due to severe mismatch between demand and capacity in chronically underfunded services.

It is not uncommon for patients to get to a worryingly low BMI before they are considered appropriate for an in-patient bed. That requires investment, but eating disorder treatment is cost-effective at any stage. We know that early diagnosis is critical: the earlier someone receives intervention for their eating disorder, the more likely they are to make a full recovery. The longer symptoms are left untreated, the more difficult it is for someone to recover. Healthcare should focus on prevention before cure. Access to the right treatment and early support is life changing. If we want to save money, prevent hospital admissions, save lives and improve outcomes for all sufferers, we need to ensure full implementation of clinical guidance around diagnosis.

There are many wonderful organisations working up and down the country to get people the help they need. I pay tribute to SWEDA, previously known as the Somerset and Wessex Eating Disorders Association, which provides invaluable support to so many families across my local area and is expanding its operations this year. Last year, SWEDA told me that it saw a 150% increase in people attending support and guidance appointments for eating disorders compared with pre-pandemic figures. Its children’s service was overwhelmed with young people and their parents desperately seeking help.

Eating disorders wipe out adolescence. Young people suffering from eating disorders miss out on so many educational and social opportunities. Those years are stolen from them—not to mention the potentially irreversible effect on their physical health. I welcome the access and waiting time standards already set for children and young people’s services. However, those targets have still not been met; 6,000 children and young people are stuck on the NHS waiting list for treatment. In two thirds of those cases, patients have been waiting for over three months, despite the standard stating that for routine cases, treatment should start within a month. Between 2022 and 2023, fewer than three quarters of children’s urgent cases started treatment within one week—well below the 95% standard. If we have standards, the Government must provide the resources to meet them.

For adults, there are not even targets in place. Adult eating disorder services in England are severely under-resourced, especially now that demand has risen to even higher levels as a result of the pandemic. Those services typically have either long waiting lists or strict referral criteria. That means that many adults are unable to access the treatment they need until they have become very ill. On average, people wait almost three and a half years to get treatment for their eating disorder, and adults wait twice as long. Shockingly, sufferers are reaching the point of emergency hospitalisation before they can access care.

Delays have deadly consequences. In 2017, the parliamentary health and service ombudsman published a damning report into the failings that led to the death of 19-year-old Averil Hart from anorexia and that of two other adults with an eating disorder. Last February, the Health Service Journal identified at least 19 adults with eating disorders whose death sparked concerns from coroners about their care. At least 15 of those were deemed avoidable and resulted in formal warnings being issued to mental health chiefs. We can never allow that to happen again. We must remember that eating disorders are treatable.

Targets are crucial if we are to tackle this epidemic. An access and waiting time standard for adults would provoke significant extra funding and focus. If we want to encourage people to seek help, we need to give them a guarantee that they will be seen. Having clear standards can facilitate service improvement. They enhance the experience for patients and drive up health outcomes. Although there is still a way to go, the standards introduced for waiting times for children and young people’s eating disorder services have driven some crucial service improvements. We need to see the same for adults.

Our health service is simply neither equipped nor empowered to deal with eating disorders. I was disappointed that the Government decided against publishing a 10-year cross-Government mental health and wellbeing plan for England; instead, they developed and published a major conditions strategy, which included mental health alongside cancer, cardiovascular disease and dementia. We need targeted and varied strategies for targeted and varied issues.

I again point the Government towards Hope Virgo’s eating disorders manifesto. It calls for the Government to implement an evidence-based national eating disorders strategy, with a plan outlining how they will tackle the huge rise in the number of people affected by eating disorders. I would also like to see the appointment of an eating disorders prevention champion to co-ordinate the Government response.

The strategy should integrate obesity and eating disorder prevention plans, because there are so many overlapping factors between the two. The Government should also consider reforming treatment approaches. For example, an Oxford University study found that using the integrated CBT-E or enhanced cognitive behaviour therapy approach rather than the current in-patient approach reduced readmission rates for people with anorexia by 70% over the course of a year.

We should also consider the other available options. The all-party parliamentary group on eating disorders, which I chair, is currently conducting an inquiry into intensive out-patient treatment. Such programmes are designed to support people with severe eating disorders for whom traditional out-patient treatment is not working. Patients go home in the evening and at the weekends, and have access to increased meal support and therapy. They can be treated in a familiar community-based setting. Such programmes are recognised as an effective and less expensive alternative to in-patient care. Importantly, both patients and their loved ones often find this form of treatment far preferable to other forms of treatment.

However, intensive out-patient treatment is not widely available across the country and there is no up-to-date information about exactly how many services are providing it. Again, we return to the importance of appropriate early intervention. Universal access to intensive out-patient services could minimise the need for disruptive in-patient stays. I hope to hear comments from the Minister about investment in such treatments.

Much of what I am talking about comes back to resources. The Government funding needs to reach frontline services, but the APPG on eating disorders found that 90% of the additional NHS funding given to clinical commissioning groups for children’s services did not reach the frontline. The Government must ensure that their funding pledges are not empty words and that money gets to where it is needed. A one-off boost is not enough. Soaring demand for underfunded services will leave people missing out on care when they need it most.

To tackle eating disorders, we also need to understand them fully. From 2015 to 2019, eating disorders accounted for just 1% of the UK’s already severely limited mental health research funding. The APPG on eating disorders previously conducted an inquiry into eating disorder research funding, which found that a historic lack of investment has led to a vicious cycle of underfunding. The APPG also emphasised that we need to diversify the research agenda.

Certain eating disorders and patient groups have not been served by current research. That is a real barrier when it comes to efforts to improve care. We cannot identify the obstacles that exist without having more information. Some progress is being made. It has been encouraging to see some increased investment into eating disorder research and a commitment to actively involve people with lived experience in emerging research collaborations. We now need to see targeted investment and ringfenced funding.

Eating disorder sufferers are being abandoned. We are well aware that the NHS is in crisis. However, although we have heard harrowing stories about delays in ambulance services and accident and emergency departments, the impact on mental health services has received little attention. Eating disorders are an epidemic and the sooner we realise that, the sooner we can treat them with the attention they deserve. No one should be condemned to a life of illness and nor should anyone die of an eating disorder in 2024.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)]

This debate can last until 4.30 pm. I am obliged to call the Front Benchers no later than 3.57 pm and the guideline limits are 10 minutes for the SNP, 10 minutes for His Majesty’s Opposition and 10 minutes for the Minister. Then the mover of the motion will have two or three minutes at the end to sum up the debate. In the meantime, it is Back-Bench time. I call Olivia Blake to speak.

15:09

[Olivia Blake (Sheffield, Hallam) (Lab)]

I thank hon. Members across the House for their support in this debate, and I thank the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) for securing it. All the work that the APPG on eating disorders does is very much appreciated, and it rightly puts this issue back in front of us to discuss during each and every Eating Disorders Awareness Week. I also thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting us time to debate this issue.

Like many serious mental illnesses, eating disorders are often endured in silence. That means symptoms can go unnoticed, resulting in devastating consequences. Without diagnosis and treatment, eating disorders can be deadly. They have the biggest mortality rate of any mental health condition.

Around 1.25 million people in the UK live with disordered eating—a number that has inevitably been made worse by the pandemic. Although younger women are especially at risk of suffering from eating disorders, it is vital to remember that eating disorders can and do affect all people regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or background. So the general topic of today’s debate—Eating Disorders Awareness Week—is an important one, and it is especially important to one of my constituents.

I want to talk about someone I have been supporting for the past two years, who has shared her deeply distressing experience as an in-patient on a mental health ward. She spoke about the way in which she was

“reduced to numbers before receiving help.”

Despite not being able to eat, drink or take medication for five full days on the ward, and after asking for medical help, she was told she would only be referred once she had reached a specific blood pressure and blood sugar reading.

During my constituent’s ordeal, she was not provided with any support at mealtimes and, eventually, staff stopped asking if she wanted any food or drink. That resulted in her being transferred to another hospital in a critical condition and requiring emergency medical treatment in the ambulance on the way. As my constituent rightly told me,

“no one should ever be left to the point of medical emergency before needing help.”

It is right that we acknowledge the hard work of eating disorder specialist NHS workers and campaigners in my constituency and across the country, such as Hope Virgo, whom we have heard about, and many others. Specialist frontline workers continue to provide vital life-saving care in increasingly difficult circumstances and with increasingly scarce resources. We also need much more training in eating disorders for all frontline staff so that they understand how to treat patients in their care.

We know that eating disorder services are at breaking point. Demand is going up, cases are becoming more critical, training and resources are scarce, and the availability of support is a postcode lottery. This means that unacceptable cases such as this are inevitably becoming more and more common. The current system is failing. As I said last year, we face a crisis with terrible human consequences.

The specific theme of this year’s Eating Disorders Awareness Week is avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. Anyone can have ARFID; it can affect children, teenagers and adults. Although it is a little known and often misunderstood condition, it can have serious consequences for health if left untreated. Too often, misconceptions about picky or fussy eating trivialise this serious condition. The stigma and fear of judgment means that those with ARFID and their carers often suffer in silence. The charity, Beat, has reported an increase in calls to its helpline from people affected by ARFID. In 2018, it received 295 inquiries about the disorder. By 2023, that had ballooned to 2,054 calls.

[Wera Hobhouse]

Does the hon. Member agree that this is also about the carers, care givers and the parents who need to know about the condition? They are often worried to death when they see a child or a young adolescent in such a condition and they do not know what to do.

[Olivia Blake]

I absolutely agree. I have had carers contacting me to ask where they can find guidance because of the limits locally, which I will go on to in a bit. That is probably why we have seen the increase in calls for support for carers.

Carers are hearing time and again that people are struggling to get the help that they desperately need. That is partly due to limited awareness, limited research on the condition and a lack of standardised treatment pathways. Today’s debate plays an important role in tackling the misconceptions in the system and raises awareness of a serious condition that can have fatal consequences if left untreated, due to malnutrition and other issues.

Another part of the problem is under-resourcing in the system. Since 2011, hospital admissions for eating disorders have nearly doubled in England, going from 2,287 to 4,462 last year, after peaking at 5,559 cases in the year 2021-22. Currently, 12.5% of 17 to 19-year-olds are estimated to suffer from disordered eating. Shockingly, an NHS England survey found that 59.4% of 17 to 19-year-olds exhibited behaviours that suggested it was possible that they had an eating disorder. Among girls, the figure rises to just over three quarters, at 77%.

While Ministers promised more funding, the scale of response simply is not matching the alarming level of demand. The waiting time targets for specialist eating disorder services for children and young people are consistently not met, even though they have only recently been put in place, while the lists have simply been growing longer and longer. As a bare minimum, there should be an action plan to address the backlog, and a similar target must be put in place for adults seeking help. That was part of a previous plan, but it has clearly been dropped in the major conditions strategy, which the hon. Member for Bath mentioned. Without a clear plan in place to meet those targets, it is really important that we make sure that care is available to people. All children and adults with an eating disorder should be able to get access to the care that they need.

It is not good enough to address the in-patient figures alone. We know that early intervention is the right treatment. The devastating consequences of eating disorders can be prevented, yet the Government have done very little to move us in the right direction towards preventive care.

Due to the delays in identification, referral and waiting times, those able to access treatment are waiting on average three and a half years between onset and start of treatment. That is far too long, when we know that the earlier we get to people, the better their chances. The delay is potentially fatal to many, with recovery being far more likely for patients who receive medical intervention early, when behaviour can be adapted before it becomes too ingrained. For ARFID, we need an NHS-commissioned treatment pathway and trained NHS staff so that people do not go undiagnosed or untreated, or sit in treatment pathways that are not suitable for their needs.

It is seven years since the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report, which has been mentioned. That report was damning. It concluded that patients had been failed by NHS eating disorder services. It is shameful that we cannot point to more progress in this area and that, since then, the ombudsman has felt the need to reiterate the findings of that report to try to get more action.

This crisis should be an opportunity to rethink our approach to how we support and treat people in the UK who suffer from an eating disorder. I urge the Minister to look at the transformative work that groups such as South Yorkshire Eating Disorder Association are doing to help build an alternative framework for care nationally. It is time that we acknowledged the crisis and committed the training and resources necessary to fix it.

15:23

[John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) not just on securing this debate, but on her dogged pursuit of this issue over the years. The Minister should be aware that the all-party parliamentary group on eating disorders is one of the most active and effective in Parliament, as a result of her work. She has collected around her hon. Members, such as my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Olivia Blake), who are extremely committed in representing their constituents.

We all come to this issue as a result of dealing with our constituents and the hardships that they have faced. I thank Hope Virgo for her work, her campaign and the book she has written. If it was not for her, I do not think we would have been on this agenda as effectively as we have been in recent years.

I thank the Government as well because, early on, they recognised that there was an issue and brought forward some resources. I am grateful for that, but this is one of those issues where things are moving so rapidly in terms of the scale of the problem. We will have to come back to the Government regularly to look at how we top up those resources.

Much has been said about the statistics. I heard the figure of 1.25 million people mentioned and others have said 1.6 million, but it seems like a bottomless pit. The health survey was really interesting. If I remember rightly, it looked at those who had the potential for an eating disorder, so it was trying to get ahead of the numbers, and it said that 16% of the population—19% of women and 13% of men—could be at risk. One of the issues that the APPG has been really good at breaking through on is that this is not just about women; a large number of men are also affected by this problem, and that needs to be addressed.

In all these debates, we try to get across the impact and, to a certain extent, highlight to our constituents that we understand how their lives are affected. Of course, the mental health issues are fundamental. There have been suicides and deaths, but there has also been an outbreak of self-harm among people suffering from this condition. People have reported that there has been an impact on their ability to work, meet socially and engage in a full life. What has worried me most is the huge increase in the numbers being admitted to hospital—I think there has been a fourfold increase in recent years.

As has been said, this is the mental health condition with the highest mortality rate. Part of that is because there is a mismatch between the scale of the problem and the resources available, and that includes the number of hospital beds. I understand that there are only 450 specialist beds, but the admission rate is about 20,000, so there is a startling difference between what is needed and what has been provided.

[Wera Hobhouse]

Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that the biggest problem is that for too long, this condition has been seen as a lifestyle choice rather than an illness? We still need to make a breakthrough on that.

[John McDonnell]

Thanks to the work that the hon. Lady, the campaigners and others have done, the media reporting of this issue has, to a certain extent, changed dramatically, but that has taken years to achieve. I agree that this is still seen as a lifestyle choice. It is not seen as serious; people do not relate deaths to this condition, but we all know from dealing with our constituents that that is what happens.

The other issue about the access to hospitals and clinics is that we have all had to map out, across the country, where constituents can go. Often, what happens is that they are discharged from one unit and it is then almost impossible to get them into another, particularly if there are specialist concerns.

The issues that we are reiterating today include the fact that the funding needs reviewing again, because the situation has moved on since we last discussed funding with the Government. There is also a lack of clarity, so we need a concrete action plan for the coming period. One of the issues is how we bring people together. There is a real concern about the lack of monitoring. One of the proposals, which I think Hope Virgo first raised, is to have a discussion about how we are monitoring this situation, both in terms of incidents and the effectiveness of different treatments. A proposal from one of the discussions we had is that it is time to bring together again those with experience of the condition and the key clinicians in the field, so that we can stand back and objectively look at where we are at. When we have dealt with homicides and suicides in other fields, we have set up independent inquiries because of the seriousness of the matter. In some instances, I feel that we need some form of inquiry to see where we are at and what is needed in the future.

The hon. Member for Bath and my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam mentioned the staff. The impression I get from the discussions I have is that, because of the increasing demand, staff are experiencing a level of exhaustion and a morale issue about simply being able to cope with the numbers and severity of the conditions they are dealing with. One thing we can do today, as others have, is to acknowledge the commitment and dedication of those staff, while recognising that they need greater support, in terms of both numbers and pay, to demonstrate just how valued they are.

The issue around the NICE guidelines has already been raised, and my experience is the same as others’, really. It is hit or miss; there is a postcode lottery in the provision of treatment under the guidelines. The Dump the Scales campaign by Hope Virgo and others has been effective at moving the debate on from just talking about BMI, so that a wider range of discussions are now taking place, which I really welcome. However, there is still no recognition across services that eating disorders are a mental health issue, and that therefore mental health practices that have been effective elsewhere need to be applied here. I argue very strongly for the need to fund cognitive behavioural therapy, which has a success rate of 70%, I think. It has also reduced readmission rates down to about 15%, so it is a huge money saver for the NHS. Again, we need to look at the levels of investment, both in training staff for that and in ensuring access.

I want to mention another issue that has been raised before. We have found too many examples of the provision of palliative care to eating disorder sufferers, which we are hoping will end. Palliative care should be offered only if there is another life-threatening condition; it should not be offered just because of this condition. We hope that that has now been ended, but it needs monitoring again to ensure that the message is out there. Our overall view is that, with the right support and early enough intervention, people’s lives can be saved, and that their lives can be transformed as a result, but it does need adequate funding.

The hon. Member for Bath mentioned the ringfenced fund that is needed for research. At this stage, it is time to stand back, bring together sufferers and clinicians, and look at what the strategy should be. We need an adequately funded, concrete strategy that we can all sign up to. This is a cross-party issue; it is not party political. As I say, I welcome what the Government have done so far. We are now at the stage where we know so much more about the escalation of the problem and the need for therapeutic interventions, and about what works and what does not.

My final point is to pay tribute, as others have done, to all the campaigners who have put this issue on the agenda and provided support throughout. I pay tribute to all the clinicians, of course, and to one group in particular, which is the school nurses—Members may recall that we held a session with them. They brought forward their programme for how they would provide advice and assistance to pupils, which proved to be incredibly effective. Of course, I also pay tribute to all those who have supported the all-party parliamentary group of the hon. Member for Bath with such expert advice, as well as consistent nagging.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)]

We now come to the Front Benchers, the first of whom will be Patricia Gibson for the SNP.

15:33

[Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran) (SNP)]

I wish to begin, as others have, by congratulating the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) on bringing forward this debate in Eating Disorders Awareness Week. I am very glad to once again participate in this debate, as I have done in the past. When I have spoken in this debate previously, I have always begun by pointing out that I first became aware of eating disorder conditions in the 1980s, when Karen Carpenter died, and then again in 1999, when Lena Zavaroni died. Both women had struggled with eating disorders for a number of years and sadly succumbed to them, when they ought to have had so many years ahead of them.

An estimated 1.25 million people across the UK face a similar struggle. Eating disorders, as we have heard, do not respect age, ethnicity, gender or background. Indeed, a quarter of those with eating disorders are men.

The mortality rate is high, especially for those with anorexia, which has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, and one in six people with binge eating disorder attempt to end their lives. Other mental health challenges can often accompany eating disorders, such as depression, self-harm, anxiety and obsessive behaviours. Eating is fundamental to survival, so those with eating disorders typically develop severe physical health problems. Yet we know that, with the right support and treatment, we can change lives, and early intervention provides the best chance for recovery.

Eating Disorders Awareness Week this year seeks to highlight avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, or ARFID, which is a relatively new term. It is different from other restrictive eating disorders in that it describes a pattern of eating that avoids certain foods or food groups entirely and/or is restricted in quantity. Sometimes those with it eat very small amounts. Avoidant and restrictive eating is not related to a lack of available food, cultural norms or even fasting for religious reasons, and it is not related to a person’s view of their body shape or a specific purpose, such as losing weight. Nor does it feature some of the other behaviours that can be associated with anorexia or bulimia, such as over-exercising. ARFID is often dismissed as picky eating, but the crucial difference between what we might call a picky eater and a child with ARFID is that a picky eater will not starve themselves to death. A child with ARFID very well might.

While the exact causes of ARFID are unknown, it is thought that people who develop it do so because of sensory sensitivity, fear of negative consequences or a lack of interest in eating. For example, they might be very sensitive to the taste, texture or appearance of certain types of food, or have had a distressing experience with food, such as choking, vomiting, infant acid reflex or other gastrointestinal conditions. That may cause the person to develop feelings of fear and anxiety around food, leading them to avoid it. It does not discriminate; it can affect anyone of any age, including even babies, and can be diagnosed in children as young as three.

Researchers know much less about what puts someone at risk of developing ARFID, but it has been discovered that people with autism spectrum conditions are much more likely to develop the condition, as are those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and intellectual disabilities. In addition, children who do not outgrow what we might call “normal picky eating”, or in whom picky eating is severe, appear to be more likely to develop ARFID. Many children with ARFID have a co-occurring anxiety disorder, and they are also at high risk for other psychiatric disorders.

According to Beat, the UK’s largest eating disorder charity,

“There has been a sevenfold increase in calls to our Helpline”

related specifically to ARFID over the past five years. The variable service provision for the condition is due partly to the lack of research into treatment. The Scottish Government have provided Beat with more than £600,000 to provide a range of support for those affected by an eating disorder, but performance still varies across health boards. There must be no complacency. To help tackle that, a consultation was undertaken on the draft national specification for the care and treatment of eating disorders in Scotland to ensure that support and services meet the needs of those living with an eating disorder, wherever and whoever they are in Scotland. The responses to the consultation will be considered carefully.

When a person has an eating disorder of any kind, they need compassionate support with their mental and physical health. Their loved ones also need support, because this is a condition that affects whole families and not just individuals. Indeed, very often, it is close loved ones who are the first to pick up on the fact that their beloved family member has an eating disorder. There is nothing worse for them than watching their loved one’s mental and physical health deteriorate before their eyes from a condition that is often not well understood and, sadly, not always sufficiently supported through prompt and sensitive treatment.

I am glad that we are once again having this important debate on this condition in Eating Disorders Awareness Week and taking the opportunity to raise awareness of eating disorders in general and, this year, of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. Much more research needs to be done into that, and I confess that I knew almost nothing about it before I started preparing for the debate. I hope debates like this one will help those living with an eating disorder and their loved ones to feel less alone, because it can be an isolating illness for individuals and their families, which can only compound the pain and fear that this condition often generates.

15:40

[Abena Oppong-Asare (Erith and Thamesmead) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Hollobone. I want to start by praising the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) and my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Olivia Blake). They are true champions of those suffering from eating disorders or mental health issues, especially our children and young people. I congratulate them on securing the debate and on their excellent contributions, as well as their continued work through the APPG on eating disorders to help champion this issue. They have put this issue on the national radar and have worked effectively cross-party to try to eradicate the epidemic of eating disorders.

I also thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell), who talked passionately about the impact that eating disorders have on individuals and highlighted the fact that we need to understand the impact they have on people’s lives, including at work. He also talked about the huge spike in hospitalisation figures.

I want to touch on some of the points mentioned by the hon. Member for Bath, who used powerful statistics to make the growing problem of eating disorders hit home. She highlighted the disparity between areas in how high up the agenda the issue is—it is not always high up the agenda—and talked about the importance of carers and parents knowing more about the condition so they can help to address it. That was echoed by my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam, who talked passionately about her constituent, who said she was “reduced to numbers” before receiving help. She also highlighted something that hit home with me when she spoke about how her constituent had said that no one should be “left to a medical emergency” before getting help, and that there should be standardised treatment for this particular matter.

I am pleased to speak on behalf of the Opposition to mark Eating Disorders Awareness Week. As many people in the room will be aware, eating disorders are serious mental illnesses that can have severe consequences. It is estimated that over 1 million people in the UK live with an eating disorder, and the reality is that for far too long, those suffering have been ignored. Eating disorders are responsible for more loss of life than any other mental health condition, as has been said. Unfortunately, as we have seen with the statistics raised in the debate, it is increasingly becoming quite common. The sooner someone receives treatment, the better their chances for making a full and sustained recovery, yet that is often not the case. It is a credit to the many campaigners and parliamentary colleagues in this room who have been working on this, along with vital charities, such as Beat, that we can say progress has been made in awareness and support. However, as we continue to face the severe consequences of the pandemic, we see a mental health crisis across our country. We all know that so much more urgently needs to be done.

The NHS figures suggest that the proportion of those aged 17 to 19 with an eating disorder stands at 12%, which is up from just 0.8% six years ago. Hospital admissions are double what they were a decade ago, and last year the awareness week focused on the specific challenges for men.

I also want to quickly echo the point made my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam, as well as other Members, on the importance of recognising that eating disorders do not discriminate. They affect any age, ethnicity, gender or socioeconomic background. It is important to highlight those facts when continuing to break down the stigmas and stereotypes that prevent so many people from reaching out and receiving much needed help.

This year, Beat has focused its attention on another important issue that has often been overlooked—avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. It can affect anyone of any age, and Beat has estimated that the number of people with that disorder in the UK could be over 200,000. It can be very difficult to diagnose, and as Beat has highlighted, the information available to those seeking help can be very limited, which echoes what has been said by hon. Members today about parents and carers not having sufficient information on how to address these issues. For example, it has been highlighted that eight in 10 eating disorder service providers do not state on their website whether they offer ARFID care.

The data clearly shows that such cases, like all eating disorders, have surged in recent years across the UK. However, as cases have risen, services have struggled to match the demand, which means more waiting in anguish for longer. In 2015, the Government introduced new waiting times and access standards for community-based eating disorder services for children and young people. That included targets for one-week urgent treatment and four-week routine treatment, but those targets have never been met. I would be grateful if the Minister could tell us what will be done to address that failure. Meeting those targets is much needed. Instead of meeting those targets last year, one in five patients with non-urgent referrals were not seen within four weeks, and one in three patients with urgent referrals were not seen within a week. When children and young people with urgent cases of eating disorders wait more than 12 weeks to start treatment, the severity of the current crisis cannot be overlooked.

I also want to raise the important issue of providing adequate care to adults. As highlighted by the HSJ report last year, the deaths of 19 eating disorder patients, with at least 15 of those being deemed avoidable, demonstrated an urgent need to improve eating disorder provision. What more are the Government doing to address those concerns and ensure that all those patients receive the quality of care that they deserve?

I also want to touch on some of the points mentioned by my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington, my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam, and the hon. Member for Bath. They mentioned the lack of monitoring of the effectiveness of treatment being provided. Is the Minister aware that the Royal College of Psychiatrists has published guidance for healthcare professionals to support the development of specialist skills and knowledge to assess and treat people with eating disorders? What are the Government doing to ensure that that guidance is embedded in primary care and emergency departments? The Opposition recognise that, when it comes to eating disorders and all mental health issues, prevention is so important, and early prevention provides the best chance of recovery. Too many people, especially our children and young people, are stuck on mental health waiting lists for months or years instead of receiving the urgent care that they need.

We face a mental health crisis in this country, and we must have a Government that acknowledge that and will take urgent action. That is why Labour have committed to a child health action plan, with a bold ambition for this to be the healthiest generation of children ever. We will recruit thousands more mental health staff to cut waiting lists and ensure that more people can access treatment. We will focus on prevention, early diagnosis, early intervention and timely treatment near where people live.

To do that, we will put an open-access mental health hub for children and young people in every community, and a mental health specialist in every school. That will be paid for by abolishing tax loopholes for private equity fund managers and tax breaks for private schools. We cannot continue to lurch from crisis to crisis, which is what is currently happening. We must look at how we can build a new, solid, long-term foundation for a resilient health and care system, with an NHS that is truly fit for the future.

15:50

[The Minister for Health and Secondary Care (Andrew Stephenson)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Hollobone. I start by paying tribute to the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) for securing an important debate on an important topic. I know that both as an MP and as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group she has long been a champion for those living with eating disorders. She has worked with the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Olivia Blake) and others on the APPG to ensure that eating disorders are kept high on the political agenda.

I share the passion for this issue expressed by all the hon. and right hon. Members who have spoken in this debate. As the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) said, one thing that unites everybody in the Chamber today is that we have all tried to help a constituent, or the family of a constituent, who is suffering from an eating disorder. I have certainly done so in my 13 years as the MP for Pendle, and those cases that I have dealt with are some of the most difficult and emotional to have come across my desk in my surgery.

Improving eating disorder services is a key priority for the Government and a vital part of our work to improve mental health services. As we have heard, this week is national Eating Disorders Awareness Week, and raising awareness is essential to making progress on this important issue. I am grateful for the work of Beat and other charities across the whole sector; they have shone a light on eating disorders and they support people who are struggling.

We know that having an eating disorder can so often be utterly devastating for those with the condition, as well as for those around them. As I think has been said by pretty much every hon. Member who spoke today, we know that eating disorders can affect people of any age, gender, ethnicity or background. However, we do know that recovery is possible, and that access to the right treatment and support can be life changing. Early intervention is vital, and we want to ensure that children and young people with eating disorders get swift access to support.

Since 2016, investment in children and young people’s eating disorder community services has risen every year; £53 million was invested per year in 2021-22, and that figure rose to £54 million in 2023-24. As part of the £500 million covid-19 mental health recovery action plan, we invested an extra £79 million to significantly expand young people’s mental health services—enabling 2,000 more children and young people to access eating disorder services. We have also introduced a waiting time standard for children and young people with eating disorders. Our aim is for 95% of children to receive treatment within one week for urgent cases, and within four weeks for routine cases.

[Abena Oppong-Asare]

On the Minister’s point about getting waiting time targets down to one week, those targets were implemented in 2015, and they are yet to be met. Could the Minister explain what work is being done to address that, because he just mentioned those same targets again?

[Andrew Stephenson]

I completely recognise the shadow Minister’s challenge on that point and the concern that she has—I will set out what we are doing to address it. She also mentioned the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which published a report on this today. It is worth putting on record that we very much welcome that and that we look forward to working with it and other stakeholders. Waits are not as short as we would like, and the Government are determined to meet our waiting-time standards for children and young people with eating disorders. Extra investment is going into the services to meet increased demands and reduce waits, so hopefully we will start to see progress made towards meeting those targets. However, we acknowledge that, while there has been record investment and progress in improving access to eating disorder services and improving quality, there has also been a significant increase in demand for those services over the past few years. That was especially true during the pandemic, with increased demand outstripping the planned growth in capacity.

Children and young people’s eating disorder services are treating 47% more children and young people than before the pandemic, with almost 12,000 children and young people starting routine or urgent treatment in 2022-23, compared with just over 8,000 in 2019-20. That surge in demand has made meeting our waiting-time targets more challenging, and waits are not as short as we would like them to be. However, I am proud that our services and clinicians, backed by new funding, are supporting more children and young people than ever before. Those services are changing and saving lives.

We also know that even earlier intervention is critical to prevent eating disorders from developing. Community-based early mental health and wellbeing support hubs for children and young people aged 11 to 25 can play a key role in providing that support. In October 2023, we announced that £4.92 million from the Treasury’s shared outcomes fund would be available to support hubs, and an evaluation to build the evidence base underpinning those services.

[Wera Hobhouse]

Can the Minister perhaps comment on what I said about intensive out-patient units, in that we really do not have any information on how widely spread they are and where they are being provided? They are a very good alternative way of treatment, and we really need more information about where they are available.

[Andrew Stephenson]

We do need more information on that, and I will come to that point. The next point that I wanted to make was on an announcement that I know the hon. Lady will already be aware of, but other hon. Members may not be. Following the evaluation of some excellent commercial tenders from hubs across the country, the Government announced just this week that we are now providing an additional £3 million, which means that total of 24 hubs will receive a share of almost £8 million in 2024-25. That is more than double our original target of funding 10 hubs, and organisations across England—from Gateshead to Truro—will now benefit.

I appreciate that there is still a bit of a postcode lottery around the country, but we are looking to strengthen services, working with different partners across England, to ensure that we are improving services—enhancing existing services—or developing new services where they have not been provided in the past.

[Abena Oppong-Asare]

I just want to add to the point made by the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) about hubs. What work will be done to ensure that the data is captured to see how the growing problem of eating disorders can be addressed and what effective treatments could slow the increase?

[Andrew Stephenson]

We are working very closely with NHS England and partners to ensure that that data is captured. We are also working with the charities involved in this sector and with others.

I know that the Minister with responsibility for mental health, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (Maria Caulfield), has been doing a lot of work on this and has met with various stakeholders. I perhaps should have said at the start of the debate that the reason my hon. Friend is not here and hon. Members have me instead is, of course, that the International Women’s Day debate in the Chamber was still going when this debate started —so, unfortunately, there was an unavoidable clash.

However, I know that this is a topic very close to my hon. Friend’s heart, and getting the data right is really important for us to ensure that the gaps that currently exist in services are being addressed. I will certainly ensure that the shadow Minister’s issue is raised with my hon. Friend; if I may, I will ask her to write to the hon. Lady on that.

We know that eating disorders can have devastating effects on adults too. Under the NHS long term plan, by 2023-24 we are investing almost £1 billion extra in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders. That extra funding will help to enhance the capacity of new or improved community eating disorder teams covering the whole of the country. As part of funding provided in 2021-22 in response to pressures created by the pandemic, we also provided £58 million to support the expansion of community mental health services for adults, including those relating to eating disorders.

Many hon. Members in their contributions raised avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, or ARFID. I share their ambition to improve support for people living with this under-recognised condition. In 2019-20, NHS England funded seven community eating disorder teams for children and young people, one in each region of England, in a pilot programme to improve access, assessment and treatment for children presenting with ARFID. The pilots ran from September 2019 to March 2020 and included training to support the adaption of each service’s existing care pathways, assessments and treatment interventions for children and young people with ARFID. The training from those pilots is now available for local areas to commission for their community children and young people’s eating disorders services. In 2021, NHS England also commissioned ARFID training for staff delivering treatment in inpatient children and young people’s mental health services.

We recognise that more needs to be done. We know that the earlier treatment is provided, the greater the chance of recovery. NHS England continues to work with eating disorders services and local commissioners to improve access to treatment for all children and young people with a suspected eating disorder, including those presenting with ARFID.

Several hon. and right hon. Members raised the issue of BMI and the Dump the Scales campaign. NHS England continues to emphasise to systems and services that BMI should not be used as a single measure to determine access to treatment within either adult or children and young people’s eating disorders services. That is in line with NICE recommendations and is included in the national published guidance, as well as in the recent community mental health framework. NHS England is also in the process of updating the children and young person’s guidance, which will also state that BMI should not be used as a single measure.

The hon. Member for Bath asked whether we would consider appointing an eating disorder champion who could help to galvanise action and support for people living with those conditions. As she may know, the Government do not currently have plans to appoint a specific champion role, but I can assure her that the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England already work closely with stakeholders advocating for better care, such as Beat. We are also very grateful for the work of Dr Alex George in his role as the Government’s ambassador for children and young people’s mental health, which includes championing the needs of those with eating disorders.

The right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington raised the issue of palliative care pathways. I want to assure him and other hon. Members that people with eating disorders should not be routinely placed on palliative care pathways, including those with severe, complex or enduring eating disorders. The NHS is clear that all those with severe, complex or enduring eating disorders should have access to evidence-based treatments focused on helping people recover, including hospital-based care if appropriate. Staff involved in the care of people with complex and severe eating disorders must adhere to the legal frameworks that safeguard their best interests, and NHS England will work with patient groups and stakeholders to develop further guidance on that.

The hon. Members for Bath and for North Ayrshire and Arran (Patricia Gibson) raised the issue of suicide. It is critical that we all do all we can for those affected by eating disorders before they reach that point. That is why the Government published a suicide prevention strategy in September of last year, which aims to reduce suicide over the next five years. I want to reassure right hon. and hon. Members that people in contact with mental health services, including those with eating disorders, are a priority group for the strategy.

In closing, I extend my thanks once again to the hon. Member for Bath for securing the debate, and to all the hon. and right hon. Members here today for their thoughtful contributions and questions.

16:04

[Wera Hobhouse]

I want to thank everybody who took part in today’s debate on Eating Disorders Awareness Week. It was an opportunity for all of us to learn more about ARFID, or avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder —it has a long and difficult name, but it is a very severe condition and it is important we understand more about it, as it now affects many young people and their families. I am therefore glad that Beat chose that particular theme for this year’s Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

We have heard about the many different forms that eating disorders take. Many aspects of those different forms are still not entirely known, and that includes ARFID. We need a lot more research into the condition. Most of all, we must increase awareness of support for sufferers and caregivers, urgently increase access to services and especially provide access in a timely manner. We have heard several times that we have targets for children and young people, but they are not being met, and we certainly need targets for adult services. While we have made progress, there is still much more to do.

I want to thank Beat, the many other eating disorder charities and those working in eating disorders services for their sterling work. They are all doing amazing work. Last but not least, I want to pay tribute to the indefatigable Hope Virgo. Without her tireless campaigning, we would not be here today. However, there is still a lot to do. I know the Government are listening and I hope for and look forward to further co-operation.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2024.

16:06

Sitting adjourned.