Diolch, Llywydd. That's caught me out a little bit. At the risk of repeating some elements, I'll go forward. But speaking here in January, I challenged the Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Well-being over actions to ensure faster and equitable progress in improving eating disorder services across Wales. I highlighted findings in eating disorder charity Beat's 'The Welsh Eating Disorder Service Review: 3 years on' report, published that week, and called on the Welsh Government to support the report's recommendations. The Welsh Government's eating disorder service review in 2018 set out an ambitious vision on early intervention, evidence-based treatment and support for families, with eating disorder charity Beat playing a key role in the review.

But, their report published in January found that progress towards achieving that vision had varied widely across Wales, and when I asked the Deputy Minister whether the Welsh Government, in line with Beat's recommendations, would publish a new service model or framework, including timescales, to set out what they expect from health boards, and if so, when she would expect this to happen, she replied that the Welsh Government would be using Beat's report to inform their work going forward. We therefore need to know where, when and how. 

As this motion states,

'improvements in eating disorder services in the last three years have been uneven, continuing the inequity documented by the review', and

'treatment for those affected in Wales varies greatly depending on age, diagnosis and location.'

When I met Beat's national officer for Wales in early January, ahead of publication of their three-years-on report, she told me that Beat had been calling for the full implementation of the 28 eating disorder service review's recommendations since it was first published by the Welsh Government. These included the allocation of sufficient funding, workforce and staff training, accompanied by an implementation plan and timescales for when the recommendations will be fully implemented across Wales. I therefore again urge Members who genuinely care about this issue to vote in favour of our amendment calling on the Welsh Government to,

'establish targets and publish monthly statistics on waiting times for mental health treatment, including issues such as eating disorders.'

As with so much else, without this, the Welsh Government's designer fortifications will lack foundations.

It must also be emphasised that Beat's campaign theme this year, 'Worth More Than 2 Hours', is about the current lack of training on eating disorders for students studying at medical school. Their top key policy ask in Wales for this Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2022 is for eating disorders to be appropriately taught and assessed at all medical schools, and for all junior doctors to gain clinical experience during foundation training, where learning about eating disorders is generally overlooked in medical training, with severe consequences for the prognosis and safety of patients.  

When I met Beat's national officer in early January, we also discussed the need to strengthen the connection between eating disorder services and other specialist services including autism and diabetes, increased waiting times for specialist treatment, with people becoming vulnerable in the meantime, and the need for both early intervention and greater support for families. She subsequently sent me further details about avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, or ARFID, and how it can co-occur with other conditions such as autism. ARFID is a condition characterised by the person avoiding certain foods or types of food, having restricted intake in terms of overall amount eaten, or both. Someone might be avoiding and/or restricting their intake for a number of different reasons, including sensitivity to the taste, texture, smell or appearance of certain types of food, or only being able to eat foods at a certain temperature. This can lead to sensory-based avoidance or restriction of intake. As Beat state, ARFID can be present on its own or it can co-occur with other conditions, most commonly anxiety disorders, autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. As Beat's 'The Welsh Eating Disorder Service Review: 3 years on' report states, the eating disorder service review explained that

'early intervention and evidence-based treatment require an integrated approach, with good communication and collaboration between services.'

In particular, it focused on improving integration between eating disorder services, primary care, weight management services, diabetes services, autism and neurodevelopmental services, mental health services and the voluntary and community sector. However, their survey of health and care professionals and volunteers found a lack of integrated, collaborative working with other health or social care services and a lack of integrated, collaborative working with schools, colleges and universities,

'restricting the ability of their teams/services to meet the current demand for eating disorder treatment.'

That was in January. If the Welsh Government is sincere, it must commit to the real action this motion calls for accordingly.