Eating Disorders: Yorkshire and the Humber
(asked on 11th March 2019) - View Source
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 in place to ensure that people in Yorkshire of all categories of (a) gender, (b) sexuality, (c) age and (d) ethnicity and background with an eating disorder are able to access treatment and support.
The Government is committed to ensuring everyone with an eating disorder, regardless of their geographical location has access to timely treatment based on clinical need. NHS England’s ‘Access and Waiting Time Standard for Children and Young People with an Eating Disorder: Commissioning Guide’ sets out guidance on establishing and maintaining eating disorder services.
It states that eating disorder services for young people should follow the overarching principles for service design and development for children’s services required of local transformation plans. This includes meeting legal duties with regard to equality, with an aim to reduce inequality in access and outcomes.
The guidance is available at the following link:
Every area produces an annual joint agency local transformation plan that sets out how services will improve children and young peoples’ mental health outcomes using the new resources. These plans support local governance and oversight and are included in sustainability and transformation plans for the wider National Health Service and social care system.
The first waiting times have been set up to improve access to eating disorders services for children and young people. By 2020/21, 95% of children with an eating disorder will receive treatment within one week for urgent cases and within four weeks for routine cases. The latest figures indicate that the NHS is on track to meet that standard.
The NHS 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.