Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of funding allocated to (a) NHS Trusts and (b) Clinical Commissioning Groups for eating disorder treatments; and what steps he is taking to ensure the effectiveness of the use of that funding by (i) NHS Trusts and (ii) Clinical Commissioning Groups.

The NHS Long Term Plan committed at least a further £2.3 billion a year to mental health services by 2023/24. This investment will transform and expand services for people with mental health conditions, including eating disorders, building on our current targets.

The mental health investment standard (MHIS) requires clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to increase the amount spent on mental health by at least as much as their overall budget. In 2018/19 it is expected all CCGs will achieve the MHIS level of investment.

We have set up the first waiting times standard to improve access to eating disorder services for children and young people with the aim that 95% of children with an eating disorder will receive treatment within one week for urgent cases and within four weeks for routine cases by 2020/21. The latest available waiting times figures against this standard, indicate that NHS England is on track to meet it by 2020/21. Data from the quarter 4 January to March 2019 shows 80.6% of all patients started urgent treatment within one week and 82.4% of patients started routine treatment within four weeks.

The NHS Long Term Plan commits to testing four-week waiting times for adult and older adult community mental health teams, in selected local areas. The exact scope and timelines of these pilots are yet to be finalised.