Adults in England with eating disorders wait up to 700 days for treatment, report finds
Adults with eating disorders in England are waiting up to 700 days for vital treatment, according to a report.The stark figures were revealed in the first report of the National Audit of Eating Disorders (NAED), which looked at access to eating disorder services across the country.The audit, commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership and funded by NHS England, found there were more community teams to support children than there were for adults.On average, adults with eating disorders had to wait twice as long as children for an assessment, and more than 10 times as long for treatment, the report found.The eating disorder charity Beat said the “growing disparity” between child and adult services was “particularly worrying”.
The NAED report, using data collected between January and May this year, found there were 93 community teams and 54 inpatient teams for children and young people, compared with 69 community teams and 33 inpatient teams for adults.The audit found the national median wait for community care for children and young people was 14 days for assessment and four days for treatment, but some waited up to 450 days for treatment.For adults, the national median wait was 28 days for assessment and 42 days for treatment, with some waiting up to 700 days for treatment.In total, 3,855 people were waiting for an assessment from a community care team and 4,537 were waiting for treatment, the report said.Of those community teams with waiting lists, 71% said the most common reason was because of “demand exceeding capacity”.
Tom Quinn, the director of external affairs at Beat, said the audit was a “vital first step” to understanding service provision in England and improving care for people with eating disorders.He said community care staff were “doing their best” to support those with eating disorders but some patients were still facing the “devastating” news that there was no local support available to them.He added: “It’s particularly worrying to see a growing disparity between child and adult service provision, with longer waiting times, inaccessible or non-existent self-referral options and patchy service availability seen across adult care.“There’s also a real postcode lottery for certain eating disorders such as binge eating disorder, Arfid [avoidant restrictive food intake disorder] and night eating syndrome.“We know from our community that reaching out for help requires a great deal of courage, so being told that there’s no local support available can be devastating.
“Being able to continue living at home often leads to the best outcomes, which is why we’re calling for everyone who could benefit to be given access to an intensive community or day service close to them.”An NHS England spokesperson said: “While it is encouraging to see that on average children are being seen within a fortnight of coming forward, we are determined to make sure that everyone across all ages receives quick access to support that is consistent across the country.“Every local health system now has at least one specialist eating disorder service supporting adults and children, and we will use this report’s findings to support NHS teams to drive down waiting times for all patients.“It’s vital that people who are struggling come forward and speak with their local GP practice as soon as possible.” In the UK, Beat can be contacted on 0808 801 0677.
In the US, help is available at nationaleatingdisorders,org or by calling ANAD’s eating disorders hotline at 800-375-7767,In Australia, the Butterfly Foundation is at 1800 33 4673,Other international helplines can be found at Eating Disorder Hope
The Spin | Bradman’s greatest hour: how Australia came from 2-0 down to win the Ashes
By the time you read this, day one of the third Test will have gently unfolded/catastrophically unspooled. You will already have some inkling of how (un)likely it is that England will be able to haul in Australia’s 2-0 lead and claw back the urn.As you also probably know, only one side has overcome a 2-0 deficit to win a series, and that side was Australia, and that Australia included Don Bradman.The year was 1936. England boarded the Orion at Southampton docks in gabardines and trilbies to sail away on their first Ashes tour since Bodyline
‘Very TikTok-able’: sumo wrestling’s unlikely British boom
It is a centuries-old Japanese tradition, steeped in ceremony, with roots deep in the ancient faith of Shintoism … and it also happens to be super popular on TikTok.Sumo is finding a new audience in the UK and, not only that, many Britons are now donning a loincloth – or mawashi – and taking up the sport themselves. So much so, in fact, that amateur wrestlers from across the UK and Ireland are gearing up for the first ever British Isles Sumo Championships, due to be held in six weeks.It comes after sumo’s elite professionals captured hearts in October when they visited from Japan for a grand tournament at the Royal Albert Hall in London. They were pictured wholesomely visiting Horse Guards Parade, enjoying Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross station and riding Lime bikes around London
‘Cool Hand’ to ‘Panda Man’: the power or pitfalls of a darting nickname
It’s September 2017, and a humble Challenge Tour quarter-final at the Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan is about to change the course of darting history. Luke Humphries and Martin Lukeman are two promising young throwers making their way on the Professional Darts Corporation’s second-tier tour, dreaming of the big time. But there’s one problem.Humphries has styled himself “Cool Hand”, based on the 1967 Paul Newman film that to date he has still never watched. Lukeman, meanwhile, has decided to call himself “Cool Man”: less catchy, doesn’t really scan, but still just about works
Australia reach 326-8 against England: Ashes third Test, day one – as it happened
Ali Martin’s report from Adelaide Oval is here:Here’s how to orchestrate an Ashes comeback.The controversy:And Barney with the day one analysis on Jofra Archer:That’s my cue to get out of here, thanks for your company and comments on what turned out to be an absorbing if lackadaisical day of cricket.BIG DAY TOMORROW!Goodbye.That’s yer lot. An absorbing and hot day of cricket comes to a close in Adelaide
Alex Carey’s sparkling Ashes century steadies Australia after England strike early in heat
After the pandemonium of Perth and Brisbane’s pink-ball palooza came a more familiar opening day at Adelaide Oval. It was also roasting hot out in the middle – 35C on the mercury – and when the toss went against Ben Stokes and his embattled England players, they could easily have melted.Instead, despite some sloppiness and Alex Carey’s magical century on the ground he calls home, the tourists kept plugging away with the fight that Stokes called for at 2-0 down. At stumps Australia were 326 for eight from 83 sapping overs – runs on the heritage-listed scoreboard, granted, but short of ambitions when the returning Pat Cummins got the choice first thing.Among the reasons diagnosed for England’s precarious position in this Ashes series has been the lack of an attack leader but here one stood up
The Anti-Sports Personality of the Year awards 2025
On Thursday night the BBC will honour the heroes. But here are the year’s best dark, devious and downright dumb sporting storiesAnother year, another raft of sporting cheating scandals for our annual anti‑Spoty awards. Where the BBC Sports Personality ceremony this week rewards the cream of athletic endeavour, the Guardian instead shines a light on the darkest corners of sporting skulduggery.After the troubles last year with Xiangqi (AKA Chinese chess), in 2025 it was the turn of Weiqi (known in the west as Go), whose sedate world was rocked first by news that the 19-year-old Chinese prodigy Qin Siyue had been rumbled in the ninth round of the Chinese Team Championship – actually played last December, though for a couple of months Go managed to (ironically) stop the news emerging – for using AI and a hidden phone to plot her moves.Then in January a diplomatic storm erupted over the final of the Baduk world championship (baduk being the Korean name for weiqi), in which Korea’s Byun Sang-il beat China’s Ke Jie thanks to the confusing and controversial mid-tournament introduction of new scoring rules
George Osborne joins OpenAI: ex-chancellor adds tech post to his CV
Deals put UK-US trade relationship in the spotlight | Letters
Ministers ‘break word’ on protecting nature after weakening biodiversity planning rule
UK politics: Employment rights bill set to become law after Lords backing – as it happened
Penitent Tice tussles with The Unbearable Lightness of His Being | John Crace
How far must UK go to fend off threat of foreign interference in its elections?