Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 14
14
Accepted
NHS fails to meet waiting time standards for children and young people's eating disorder services
Conclusion
From 2015, NHSE introduced specific waiting times standards for three service areas —talking therapy services, early intervention in psychosis services and eating disorder services for children and young people—which set ambitions for people to enter treatment quickly. While the NHS has met the standards for talking therapy services and early intervention in psychosis services, it has not yet done so for eating disorder services for children and young people.25
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's observation, noting existing waiting time standards for several services. It aims to publish data for mental health community waiting times by the end of the financial year to inform the analysis and setting of appropriate new standards. An update will be provided in January 2024.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Target implementation date: January 2024 5.2 Waiting time standards already exist within Mental Health services; specifically for CYP Eating Disorder Services (95% of CYP with eating disorders accessing treatment within 1 week for urgent cases and 4 weeks for routine cases) as well as NHS Talking Therapies services (75% of people accessing treatment within 6 weeks and 95% of people accessing treatment within 18 weeks), as detailed in the Mental Health Implementation Plan. 5.3 Over the course of the Clinical Review of Standards (CRS), a patient-centred waiting time standard, informed by pilot sites, lived experience advisors and clinical experts was developed, and a public consultation undertaken. 5.4 Urgent and Emergency Care waiting times data was published on 13 July 2023. Collecting data to measure community waits for mental health is more complex and so will take longer, but the aim is to publish data for mental health community waiting times by the end of the financial year. Work also continues to improve data quality. 5.5 Once robust baseline data has been collected, work can begin to analyse appropriate standards given projected demand, capacity and resources. Setting a performance standard (i.e. the percentage of people accessing treatment in line with this measure) will need to be considered in the light of this further work and available resources. 5.6 NHS England will provide an update on progress as part of its joint letter with DHSC to the Committee in January 2024.