Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to paragraph 1.86 of the Autumn Statement 2014, how much of the planned annual £30 million additional budget for services for young people with eating disorders has been spent; and for what purposes that budget has been spent.

Alistair Burt

The whole £30 million for 2015/16 has been allocated directly to clinical commissioning groups. It is being spent on setting up new specialist community-based eating disorder teams. NHS England, in partnership with the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Services, developed the Children and Young People’s Eating Disorder Access and Waits Commissioning Guide, which was issued in August 2015 alongside the first tranche of money. The commissioning guide included detailed specifications on how to set up, train and support the teams.

The aims of these new services are to support quicker access to evidence based treatment in the community and a reduction in the rate of relapse. In time, this should decrease the need for hospital stays and reduce the need for transition to adult services, although where there is still a need, the transitioning arrangements should be improved.

This service will enable the introduction of an eating disorder standard for children and young people who are aged 18 and under, for treatment to be received within four weeks, from first contact with a designated health professional for routine cases and within one week for urgent cases.