Improving Eating Disorder Care in the UK: Breaking Barriers

If you are struggling with an eating disorder, below are resources that may help:

If you would like some confidential advice, you can reach out to the BEAT Helpline: 0808 801 0677
If you are worried about someone else, check out BEAT‘s advice on supporting a friend or family member.
F.E.A.S.T offers 24/7 support for carers.
If you need urgent help, contact 999 or the Samaritans on 116 123 if you or someone else is in immediate danger.
If you are looking for medical advice contact your GP or 111.

Wera Hobhouse’s Mission to Improve Eating Disorder Care in the UK

Wera is a strong advocate for improving mental health support. She is particularly passionate about improving care for people with eating disorders. Wera has led many campaigns to tackle eating disorders, including breaking down barriers around the condition and calling to improve treatment.

Wera has been the Chair of the Eating Disorders All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for many years. As Chair, she often works with high-profile activists like Hope Virgo who is the founder of #DumpTheScales. They have campaigned to improve support, end the postcode lottery of care, and increase funding for services.

Wera’s advocacy has been inspired by many personal stories. She works closely with families in Bath to connect them to support services and to make sure their loved one gets the care they need.

What is an Eating Disorder?

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) defines eating disorders by:

“the negative beliefs and behaviours they cause people to have about themselves and their eating, body shape and weight. They can cause people to adopt restricted eating, binge eating and compensatory behaviours (such as vomiting and excessive exercise). The emotional and physical consequences of these beliefs and behaviours maintain the disorder and result in a high mortality rate from malnutrition, suicide and physical issues (such as electrolyte imbalances).”

Some of the most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia, binge eating disorder and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder.

Eating Disorders are on the Rise in the UK

Eating disorders are a national emergency. They are on the rise, especially with young people.

The figures speak for themselves:

Eating disorders in 17 to 19 year olds rose from 0.8% in 2017 to 12.5% in 2023.
Young girls are four times more likely than boys to have an eating disorder at this age.
The number of children treated for an eating disorder has doubled in the last eight years.

One reason for this increase is the mounting pressure on body image. This has been made worse by harmful information shared on social media. Often people are shown images of unhealthy bodies or harmful diet messages on social media. This can exploit young people’s vulnerabilities. Wera spoke to The Observer about this happening on X and called for the social media platform to be held accountable for promoting eating disorders.

Eating disorders are not just on the rise in young people. Around 1.25 million people are estimated to have an eating disorder in the UK. The Health Survey for England found that 16% of adults showed symptoms of an eating disorder in 2019. This is nearly three times the rate seen in 2007.

A lack of timely care and treatment can mean people end up in hospital. The number of hospital admissions for eating disorders have doubled over the past decade. This is very alarming as a lack of timely care can be fatal. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rates among psychiatric disorders.

But these fatalities are avoidable. Eating disorders are treatable.

Barriers to Eating Disorder Treatment

Eating disorders are treatable. But patients need timely and appropriate care for a full recovery. The earlier someone receives the right treatment, the better their chances of recovery. But if eating disorders are left undiagnosed or poorly treated they can be silent killers.

Wera Hobhouse Eating Disorders Report Launch speech — (Credit: Jess Taylor, House of Commons)

Misconceptions and Stigma

Some of the biggest barriers to care are misconceptions and stigma. Many people think eating disorders are a choice or that they only affect people who are underweight. In reality only 6% of people with eating disorders are underweight. It is this unhelpful belief that can be an obstacle for patients getting the treatment they need. Even some eating disorder services still use a patient’s body mass index (BMI) as a criteria for treatment.

Wera has heard many alarming stories of people being turned away from treatment because their BMI was too high. That’s why she decided to join Hope Virgo’s #DumpTheScales campaign to challenge this misconception.

NICE guidelines state that BMI should not be used to determine eating disorder treatment. But there is a lack of regulation to check that this standard is in place across the board.

Some people with eating disorders are told that they are not underweight enough to receive treatment. Others are told that they are too sick or complex to treat because of their low BMI. Wera has heard cases of patients who were told that they were untreatable. They have then had their treatment withdrawn and been moved on to a palliative care pathway.

The NHS should provide evidence-based treatments to people with complex eating disorders. But there are far too many cases where patients are moved to palliative care instead. In 2023 an NHS document was leaked which revealed that patients with enduring eating disorders could be offered palliative care under new NHS guidelines. Wera firmly believes that palliative care should not be considered for patients with an eating disorder. Early intervention should be the priority to prevent conditions becoming severe.

Lengthy Delays and Long Waiting Lists

Sometimes patients are not seen until they are too sick for treatment. This can happen because of delays on NHS waiting lists.

The waiting time standard for children to access NICE-approved treatment is one week for urgent cases and four weeks for routine cases. But targets are often missed. At the end of 2023/24, 10,606 children had started treatment for an eating disorder. But 12% of these children had waited over three months. This is over three times the target for a routine referral. The number of children waiting even longer to start treatment has risen significantly too.

Missing the target waiting time standard can prevent people from recovering. Early intervention makes a huge difference to recovery. But an access and waiting time standard does not even exist for adults. This can leave many people to fall by the wayside.

In 2024 Wera sponsored a Westminster Hall debate during Eating Disorders Awareness Week. She highlighted the importance of sticking to treatment targets and called for a waiting time standard for adults to be introduced. She said:

“If we want to encourage people to seek help, we need to give them a guarantee that they will be seen. Having clear standards can facilitate service improvement. They enhance the experience for patients and drive up health outcomes. Although there is still a way to go, the standards introduced for waiting times for children and young people’s eating disorder services have driven some crucial service improvements. We need to see the same for adults.”

Disjointed Care

Another reason people with eating disorders have difficulties recovering fully is because of a lack of coordinated care. There is not currently a joined-up approach for patients with eating disorders. Acute hospitals, specialist eating disorder units, GPs and talking therapies all operate separately from one another.

Hospital admission often only focuses on weight restoration and fails to treat the underlying mental health conditions. This can lead to a revolving door of discharge and re-admission. As a result patients often feel like they are being moved from one department to another without receiving proper care.

Wera is pushing for an integrated approach to improve this system. This would make sure the physical and mental health aspects of an eating disorder are treated appropriately.

Wera Hobhouse’s Campaigns to Break Down Barriers, Raise Awareness, and Improve Treatment Options

Improving treatment options for eating disorders

Wera wants to improve care for patients with eating disorders. As the Chair of the Eating Disorders All-Party Parliamentary Group Wera set up an inquiry into intensive out-patient treatment. These services support patients with severe eating disorders if traditional out-patient treatment does not work. Patients can go home in the evenings and weekends after receiving treatment. They also have access to support with meals and therapy. Many patients and their families prefer this form of treatment over in-patient care. But it is not widely available. That’s why Wera is campaigning for intensive out-patient treatment to be available across the country.

Increasing funding for eating disorder research and services

Wera has also pushed to boost funding for eating disorder research. This follows an inquiry by the Eating Disorders APPG.

Eating Disorders made up 1% of the UK’s mental health research funding between 2015 – 2019. Yet in 2020 eating disorders cost the UK £9.4 billion. Wera believes that more knowledge about eating disorders will improve treatment for patients and cut costs to the UK’s economy. Wera’s work with the Eating Disorders APPG has led to further reports revealing the funding gaps for eating disorder research and services.

These include:

‘Short-changed’: Funding for children and young people’s community eating disorder services in England in 2019/20.
‘Breaking the cycle’: An inquiry into eating disorder research funding in the UK.

Championing Bath’s Eating Disorder Charities

Wera often champions the work of local Eating Disorder charity SWEDA (previously known as the Somerset and Wessex Eating Disorders Association). She has paid tribute to the organisation many times in Parliament and commended their “invaluable support to so many families across [her] local area”. Wera is fighting for every family in Bath to have access to crucial support like this when they need it.

Joining Forces with Mental Health Campaigners

In 2019 Wera joined the #DumpTheScales campaign which is led by award-winning mental health campaigner Hope Virgo. The campaign urges GPs not to use BMI to diagnose eating disorders. Wera has said that GPs should look at the trend of weight loss and the story sufferers tell instead.

Hope Virgo and Wera Hobhouse at Downing Street — (Credit: Jess Taylor, House of Commons)

Hope Virgo is now the Secretariat of the Eating Disorders APPG. Wera and Hope launched a landmark report in January 2025 with the APPG. The report was called ‘The Right to Health – People with Eating Disorders are being Failed’. It uncovered widespread neglect in NHS eating disorder services across the country. It also found that patients were being discharged from treatment with dangerously low BMIs. While researching for the report, Wera and Hope heard harrowing stories from people affected by eating disorders. Their accounts pointed towards eating disorder services not being fit for purpose.

The report made several recommendations to the government to improve services and treatments for people with eating disorders. These include:

1. The development of a National Strategy for Eating Disorders
2. Additional Funding for Eating Disorder Services
3. A Confidential Inquiry into All Eating Disorder Deaths.
4. Increased Research Funding for Eating Disorders
5. Non-Executive Director Oversight for adult and children Eating Disorder Services.

On the day of the launch, Wera brought the report to the Prime Minister’s attention. In a huge win for the campaign he promised to “look very carefully at the report and consider its recommendations”.

Wera is adamant that “no one should be condemned to a life of illness and nor should anyone die of an eating disorder in 2024.”

FAQs

How many people have an eating disorder in the UK

BEAT currently estimates that there are around 1.25 million people in the UK with an eating disorder. However, many campaigners believe that this number could be much higher.

What causes an eating disorder?

There is no simple explanation for what causes someone to develop an eating disorder. However, it is widely thought that they are caused by a combination of biological, psychological and social factors.

What are the most common eating disorders?

The most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia, binge eating disorder and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder.

Do eating disorders only affect underweight white young women?

Many people think eating disorders only affect people who are underweight. But the majority of people with an eating disorder are a healthy weight or overweight.

It is also a common misconception that eating disorders only affect white women. But in reality, eating disorders don’t discriminate. Around a quarter of people with an eating disorder are men. Eating disorders can affect people of all genders, ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations, weights or socioeconomic statuses.

Are eating disorders fatal?

Eating disorders can be fatal if they are not treated properly or in good time. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rates among psychiatric disorders.

However, eating disorders are treatable and full recovery is possible with the right support and care.

What are politicians doing to improve care for people with eating disorders?

Wera Hobhouse, the MP for Bath and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group, is taking huge strides to improve care for people with eating disorders and break down the barriers to treatment.

At the beginning of 2025, she launched a report revealing the widespread scale of neglect in eating disorder services across the UK. At Prime Minister’s Questions, she brought the issue directly to Keir Starmer’s attention and he committed to giving proper consideration to the report’s recommendations.