New national audit maps eating disorder service provision
Eating disorders are an escalating public health issue, affecting people of all ages, genders, and ethnicities.
Prevalence was estimated at 6% of the population in the UK in 2019, and 7.5% in 2025. They carry a substantial burden, often leading to long-term consequences if not treated early and effectively.
The National Audit of Eating Disorders (NAED) is a new initiative commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and funded by NHS 萝莉视频 as part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme. NAED brings together people with lived experience, clinicians, academics, and implementation specialists to take an objective, in-depth look at eating disorder services across 萝莉视频. The audit aims to improve identification, management, and overall quality of care for people of all ages.
NAED Service Mapping Report 2025
The NAED Service Mapping Report 2025 provides, for the first time, a comprehensive picture of eating disorder services across community, day patient, and inpatient care in 萝莉视频. Participation was exceptional, with 97% of eligible services registering – demonstrating a strong national commitment to improving care.
The report highlights both strengths and gaps in provision, such as:
- High availability of many NICE-recommended therapies, including:
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Eating Disorders (CBT-ED): offered by 85% of children and young people’s teams, and 90% of adult teams.
- Family Therapy for Eating Disorders: offered by 86% of children and young people’s teams.
- Caseloads in adult community teams are nearly twice as high as those in children and young people’s teams. For every patient seen in children and young people’s teams 1.89 patients are seen by adult teams.
- Variation in treatment availability across diagnoses, with most teams treating Anorexia Nervosa, but gaps in provision for Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID).
Service gaps for ARFID were a key concern raised by the NAED Service User and Carer Advisory Group (SUCAG). This group is made up of 10 experts by experience and is coordinated and facilitated by .
One carer shared:
“My son has ARFID. We were only referred because we ended up in their local hospital… Even when you get into a service there is no particular pathway. In the past five years we have been in three different teaching hospitals in London which have all taken a very different approach”.
The report highlights significant inequities in service provision across 萝莉视频, with adult services under the greatest pressure. These findings demonstrate the need for national standards and investment to ensure consistent, high-quality care.
What’s next?
Building on this foundational work, the NAED Core Audit will launch in summer 2026. Using routinely collected patient-level data (e.g. from the Mental Health Services Dataset), it will assess performance across 12 audit metrics covering access, waiting times, interventions, and outcomes. Results will be shared via an online dashboard, with a State of the Nation Report planned for 2027.
NAED also recently hosted a launch event for its Quality Improvement (QI) Network, which over 200 people registered to attend! Led by QI Expert Maureen McGeorge and QI Coach Sadhbh Fitzgerald, the network will support audit teams through QI training workshops and webinars – helping teams improve their performance based on audit findings.
Thank you
NAED would like to extend thanks to all services, clinicians, and members of the NAED Implementation Group, Steering Group, and Service User and Carer Advisory Group (SUCAG) for their invaluable contributions to this important work.