Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the APPG on Eating Disorders report: Short-changed: Funding for children and young people's community eating disorder services in England in 2019-20, published in May 2021, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that children and young people’s community eating disorder services are adequately funded.

The funding and provision of health services, including mental health services, are the responsibility of local clinical commissioning groups which have the flexibility to allocate funding according to local need.

NHS England and NHS Improvement continue to work with mental health leads from local systems, Health Education England and other partners across the health system to support local services and help ensure the funding flows to frontline children and young people’s community eating disorder services as outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan. NHS England and NHS Improvement review system plans against expected trajectories, seek assurance on any major divergences and establish recovery plans where needed.

We have also announced an extra £79 million in 2021/22 to significantly expand children’s mental health services, including allowing 2,000 more children and young people to access eating disorder services.