Background
Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are serious mental health problems which can have severe psychological, physical and social consequences. Children and young people with an eating disorder often have other mental health problems (for example, anxiety or depression) which also need to be treated to get the best outcomes.
Hence, it is vital for children and young people with eating disorders, their families and carers, to access evidence-based, high-quality care as quickly as possible. This can improve recovery rates, lead to fewer relapses and reduce the need for hospital admissions.
During the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, concerns were raised about an increase in the prevalence of eating disorders. In November 2020, NHS England announced plans to scale up an early intervention service for young people with an eating disorder to reduce waiting times and improve outcomes. To learn more, you can see our data story on the impact of Covid-19 on healthcare for children and young people.
In January 2026, NHS England set out national guidance for eating disorder services for children and young people for ICBs and providers of eating disorder services that focus on partnership working, co-production and supporting additional health needs.
Children and young people’s access to treatment for eating disorders
The Access and Waiting Time Standard for Children and Young People with an Eating Disorder was published in 2015, and applies to children and young people up to the age of 19. The standard states that by 2020, 95% of those referred for assessment or treatment for an eating disorder should receive NICE-approved treatment within one week in urgent cases, and four weeks in routine/non-urgent cases. The ability of services to meet this standard has been monitored since 2016.
After consistent improvement between April 2016 and July 2020, the percentage of children and young people getting timely treatment for eating disorders declined during the Covid-19 pandemic, alongside an increase in demand and service provision. Waiting times improved from July 2021 to April 2023, although performance remained much lower than pre-pandemic levels.
Starting in April 2023, the data on performance of services for children and young people with eating disorders comes from the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS). As a result, the data from the first quarter of 2023/24 and onwards cannot be directly compared with previous years. After some fluctuations since April 2023, 79% of urgent cases started treatment within one week and 83% of routine cases started treatment within four weeks in October 2025.
Despite improvement towards the target that 95% of those referred should start treatment within one week in urgent cases and four weeks in routine cases, it has still not been met.
Before the pandemic, the number of children and young people starting treatment for eating disorders had been increasing steadily. Between Q1 2016/17 and Q4 2019/20, routine cases starting treatment doubled, and urgent cases rose by over a third.
At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a prominent increase in the number of children and young people with an eating disorder starting treatment. The increase in referrals during the pandemic may indicate a worsening of children and young people’s mental health. Additionally, many risk factors for eating disorders were exacerbated during the pandemic, such as social isolation, loss of routine, and difficulties accessing face-to-face clinical appointments. Between April 2021 and January 2023, the number of patients starting routine treatment remained at the same level, but patients starting urgent treatment decreased by 35%. In the same period, waiting lists more than trebled for routine treatment and more than doubled for urgent treatment.
Starting in April 2023, the data on performance of services for children and young people with eating disorders comes from the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS). As a result, the data from the first quarter of 2023/24 and onwards cannot be directly compared with previous years. The significant variation between figures pre and post April 2023 could be attributed to a difference in data collection systems and providers failing to submit correct SNOMED codes for NICE-concordant interventions. From April 2023, although volumes of children and young people in treatment have increased, they have been far surpassed by children and young people who were waiting to start treatment, especially for routine cases. The latest data from October 2025 shows that 2,669 routine cases had started treatment (3,868 were waiting) and 496 urgent cases had started treatment (487 were waiting).
A&E attendances for an eating disorder diagnosis by age group
Between April 2019 and February 2020, the number of A&E attendances for an eating disorder wavered around 100 per month for individuals aged 0–18 years and at 70 per month for individuals aged 19 and above. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic caused attendances for both age groups to dip slightly, before increasing sharply up until June 2021.
A&E attendances for an eating disorder more than doubled for individuals older than 19 years, from 62 in April 2019 to 133 in June 2021, and almost tripled for individuals aged 0–18 years, from 105 to 282 for the same period. The worsening of mental health in children and young people and increased demand for treatment for eating disorders following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic could explain the burgeoning number of A&E attendances for this condition.
Between June 2021 and January 2026, A&E attendances for an eating disorder decreased overall for both age groups. In January 2026, there were 206 attendances in individuals aged 0–18 years and 116 attendances for individuals aged 19 and above.
About this data
This indicator uses referral-to-treatment waiting time data for children and young people (aged up to 19 years old) with an eating disorder. Their wait ends during the quarter that NICE-approved treatment starts. The referral is classified as urgent or routine by the community eating disorder service, based on the level of risk that the child or young person is thought to be exposed to. This may include physical risk, psychiatric risk, safeguarding or other areas of risk. Due to small numbers being referred in some areas, suppression rules have been applied to the published data to mitigate risks of case disclosure.
The Children and Young People with Eating Disorders Collection was monitored by the Strategic Data Collection Service from March 2016 to March 2023. Since April 2023, the access and waiting time standard for Children and Young People with Eating Disorders has been reported using data from the Mental Health Services Monthly Statistics (NHS Digital) as the Strategic Data Collection Service (SDCS) collection and Young People with Eating Disorders (CYP ED) was retired at the end of the 2022/23 reporting period. As a result, the data from the first quarter of 2023/24 onwards cannot be directly compared with previous years. The early stages of the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) were anticipated to have poor quality data, so NHSE implemented an interim data collection.
Data from Q2 2022/23 and Q3 2022/23 were imputed due to a cyber security incident. For more information, please see NHS England’s Children and Young People with an Eating Disorder Waiting Times.
The Emergency Care Data Set collects information about why people attend emergency departments and the treatment they receive. We received this data at patient level, without patient identifiers, from NHS Digital under a data sharing agreement, and used it to construct a metric on the number of A&E attendances for an eating disorder. An A&E department attendance for an eating disorder in children and young people was defined as patients aged 0–18 who attended a Type 1, 2 or 3 A&E department and received a primary diagnosis for eating disorder and had a valid arrival and departure date and time. Adults were classified as those aged 19 and over.
For more information, please see the Access and Waiting Time Standard for Children and Young People with an Eating Disorder and NHS England's Guidance and Risk of Disclosure documents.