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<p>The Government is committed to ensuring everyone with an eating disorder has access
to timely treatment based on clinical need. Early intervention is crucial when helping
people with an eating disorder, this is why 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 and latest figures indicate that
the National Health Service is on track to meet that standard.</p><p> </p><p>For children
and young people aged between eight and 18 years, the Government is investing £150
million to expand eating disorder services and staff for 70 extended or newly established
community eating disorder services. This has led to swift access to effective eating
disorder treatment in the community, with the number of children and young people
accessing treatment increasing from 5,243 in 2016/17 to 6,867 in 2017/18.</p><p> </p><p>The
NHS Long Term Plan commits to “test four-week waiting times for adult and older adult
community mental health teams, with selected local areas”. The exact scope and timelines
of these pilots are yet to be finalised but we envisage that this will include testing
waiting times for adult eating disorder services in those areas in receipt of new
funding to expand these services.</p>
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