This committee - which used to be called the Health Promotion Committee - aims to promote health and prevent childhood disease. It provides consistent policy, guidance, education and training and workforce development on relevant issues.
About health improvement
- Enables individuals to improve their health outcomes by encouraging healthy lifestyle choices and reduction of potentially harmful actions
- Implements health policies that complement and encourage healthy lifestyles and that promote positive environments
- Addresses socio-cultural factors impacting health, for example, inequality
Committee Chair
Dr Helen Stewart, Officer for Health Improvement
Committee outputs
The committee has overseen the development of the following:
- State of Child Health - A snapshot of child health and wellbeing in the UK, looking at 25 different health measures. Findings suggest that children from deprived backgrounds experience worse health outcomes than wealthy counterparts.
- Breastfeeding position statement - The UK has one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding in Europe, for both practical and societal reasons. RCPCH promotes breastfeeding as it reduces infection and hospitalisation rates while improving intelligence rates for babies. Mothers should be provided with support, knowledge and education through the breastfeeding process.
- Vitamin D guidance - Vitamin D helps the development of healthy, strong bones and to prevent rickets. We reiterate the importance of babies and children taking supplementation.
- Mental health local offer in children and young people's mental health - This aims to turn rhetoric into reality by making mental health 'everyone's business'. It places specialist services within a context of local systems and raises the profile of preventative and support work.
If you would like to get involved or find out more about the committee's work, please contact health.policy@rcpch.ac.uk.