Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the quality of life for those suffering with Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder.

In 2019/20, NHS England and NHS Improvement funded a pilot project to improve access, assessment and treatment for children presenting with Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). Learning from this pilot has been disseminated to community eating disorder teams in England.

In 2020, NHS England and NHS Improvement commissioned the research charity Autistica to produce an ‘ARFID and Autistic People’ briefing paper, based on a systematic review of research literature. This informed two awareness raising webinars for staff from the eating disorders charity BEAT and commissioners, clinicians and providers, to consider how autistic children and young people with ARFID could benefit from eating disorder support and services.