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 in response to NSPCC research which found that counselling sessions for eating and body image disorders among children and young people increased since the introduction of a national covid-19 lockdown in March 2020.

We recognise just how important it is that people get the support they need with their mental health and we are aware of reports that demand for eating disorder services has increased since the COVID-19 lockdown in March.

Under the NHS Long Term Plan, an additional 345,000 children and young people will be able to access support through National Health Service-funded services or school- and college-based mental health support teams by 2023-24. We remain committed to delivering the core proposals of the children and young people’s mental health Green Paper, including the introduction of senior leads in mental health and mental health support teams in schools and colleges, as well as the piloting of a four-week waiting time for specialist NHS services.

We set up the first waiting times to improve access to eating disorders services for children and young people - so that 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. Latest figures show that in 2020/21 (Q2), 85.3% of urgent cases were seen within one week and 89.6% of routine cases were seen within four weeks.

In addition, NHS England has recently announced additional early intervention services for young people with eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia in 18 area across the country, which means teens or young adults coming forward with eating disorders could be contacted within 48 hours and begin treatment within two weeks.

The Government has also commissioned research into the causes and impact of body dissatisfaction and to explore how body image is experienced by different groups, including by different age groups such as young people.