Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional funding has been provided for NHS eating disorders services to support schemes aimed to reduce increased inpatient admissions throughout the covid-19 outbreak.

Since 2016, extra funding has been provided for children and young people's community eating disorder services, with £41 million in 2019/20 and £53 million in 2021/22. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with partners across the health system to support local services and help ensure the funding flows to these services as outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan.

During COVID-19, NHS England and NHS Improvement advised all areas to continue prioritisation of service delivery and mitigate the potential impact of COVID-19 on this vulnerable group. We announced that in 2021/22 the National Health Service will receive an additional £500 million, which will support people with a variety of mental health conditions, including eating disorders.

Of this extra funding £79 million will be used to significantly expand children’s mental health services, including allowing 2,000 more children and young people to access eating disorder services and £58 million to bring forward the expansion of integrated primary and secondary care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders. In addition, NHS England announced additional early intervention services for young people aged 16 to 25 years old with eating disorders in 18 areas across the country.