Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to introduce access and waiting time standards for adults with an eating disorder.

The National Health Service Long Term Plan commits to test four-week waiting times for adult and older adult community mental health teams, with selected local areas. The exact scope and timelines of these pilots are yet to be finalised, but we envisage that this will include testing waiting times for adult eating disorder services in those areas in receipt of new funding to expand these services.

We are committed to ensuring everyone with an eating disorder has access to the best quality of care to meet their needs. We are investing an extra £30 million each year for eating disorders and the NHS is treating more children and young people with an eating disorder than ever before. The NHS Long Term Plan commits to continuing the increase in spending for children and young people’s mental health services, which will grow faster than the overall spend on mental health, which will itself be growing faster than the overall NHS budget.

To raise awareness of mental health, including eating disorders, the Department is one of the funders, with Comic Relief and the Big Lottery Funding, of the Time to Change campaign, which is led by Rethink Mental Illness, in partnership with Mind. The campaign’s guidance and advice is available at the following link:

https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/about-mental-health/types-problems/eating-disorders