Hansard

I am extremely grateful to Elena Whitham for lodging the motion and securing this debate to mark eating disorder awareness week. I also put on record my gratitude for the contributions from Emma Harper, Maurice Golden, Carol Mochan and Kevin Stewart. I pay particular tribute to Mr Stewart for his outstanding work in this area and for his leadership and drive when he held the portfolio that I am currently honoured to hold. I recognise his on-going commitment, which he touched on in his speech. For many years, we have been hearing the same voices, and I want to assure the chamber that those voices are being heard.

As we have heard today, the theme of this year’s eating disorders week is community. We welcome the opportunity to celebrate the strength of community and the important role that families, friends and wider support networks play in helping someone to feel supported through their journey, from seeking help to undergoing treatment and beyond. I also express my sincere thanks to those across Scotland who work each day to support the recovery of those with eating disorders and their families, and I extend those thanks to those in the gallery who are attending this evening’s debate.

I assure Elena Whitham and members across the chamber this evening that this Government remains committed to improving eating disorder services in Scotland. We are working closely with NHS boards and third sector organisations such as Beat, the UK’s largest eating disorders charity, to ensure that those who require support for an eating disorder have access to the right care and treatment.

Over the past five years, we have made meaningful progress to ensure timely and appropriate treatment for those impacted by an eating disorder. There is support across Scotland for children, young people, adults, families and carers, and we continue to provide funding to NHS services and the third sector, as well as working with people with lived experience, which, as Mr Stewart highlighted, is so important.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, we have funded Beat to deliver a wide range of services, including direct support, carer programmes, professional training, advocacy and digital learning platforms. This financial year alone, we have provided the organisation with more than £600,000, which includes funding for its lived experience panel. That vital platform helps to ensure that eating disorder policy and services are truly fit for purpose, and it has played a crucial role in driving forward the recommendations from the national review of eating disorder services.

Since the publication of the review, we have made real progress in delivering the short-term recommendations, and significant work is under way to deliver the remaining medium-term and long-term recommendations. The national specification for the care and treatment of eating disorder services was published, as we have heard, in November 2024. It provides a clear framework to support the NHS and community services in delivering high-quality, person-centred, safe and effective care for children, young people and adults. Recent self-assessment tools completed by health boards highlight encouraging progress and innovative approaches and give us a clearer picture of how implementation of the specification is developing across Scotland.

We continue to support NHS boards to implement the specification through the national eating disorders network. The network was established in 2024 to progress medium-term and long-term recommendations from the national review. Through Scottish Government funding, the network has also supported the development of public-facing resources, including content pages and videos that feature people with lived experience, clinicians, parents and carers. The majority of those resources are now available on NHS Inform, and work is on-going to finalise a digital page to support positive body image and a self-help guide for binge-eating behaviours. Over the past few months, the eating disorders pages have collectively been viewed more than 23,000 times.

By enhancing access to high-quality information, we are enabling individuals and communities to make informed choices on their path to recovery.