The statement highlights the necessity for more ambition to reduce the unacceptable numbers of children waiting over 18 weeks or even a year.
Children are consistently waiting longer than adults to receive necessary care; paediatric services have not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels at the same rates as adult health services and there is a growing gap between demand and capacity. Paediatric services are stretched, with RCPCH’s recent ‘rota gaps survey findings’ showing that child health services are staffed at no more than 80% of the full capacity due to workforce challenges.
The latest NHS data (November 2024) shows that:
- There is currently a paediatric waiting list of over 340,000 for elective services.
- 39% of these waits are between 18 and 52 weeks and 3% are waiting over 52 weeks for elective care.
- The waiting list for community child health services is almost 270,000. This includes services such as speech and language therapy, autism assessments, and occupational therapy.
- 33% of child waits for community health services are between 18 and 52 weeks, compared to 13% of adult waits.
- 45,000 paediatric waits are over 52 weeks, compared to only 10,000 adult waits for vital community health services.
The 10 Year Health Plan provides a fresh opportunity to prioritise children’s health and raise the healthiest generation of children ever. Children and young people must be a central pillar to the forthcoming plan if we are to achieve this.
In order to achieve this, we are in agreement on the following actions. The government must bring forward a child health workforce strategy to ensure there are enough professionals to support children in the right place at the right time. The system must ensure that integration works for children, so we are both preventing illness and keeping children living with conditions as healthy as possible. Additionally, improving funding mechanisms will ensure that children's services, and children themselves, receive their fair share of government funding
Read the consensus statement here.
RCPCH Officer for Health Services, Dr Ronny Cheung, said:
Early intervention in childhood is central to ensuring a healthier future for everyone. This Government’s focus on prevention is welcome, and nowhere will this be reflected more than when it comes to child health. With paediatric waiting lists reaching almost 500,000, and the 18-week target for children’ services being regularly missed, we urgently need policy making to put child health and children’s rights at the fore, and recovery must go further and faster for children.
As a paediatrician it is clear to me that a significant portion of lifelong health issues begin in childhood and adolescence and, if untreated, can lead to higher rates of illness and worsening health conditions over time. This not only affects these children and their families but also has a broader impact on national health for the long haul.
We believe this newly published consensus statement from the child health sector will provide the government with a clear path towards reducing waiting times for children and young people and set the stage for truly achieving the government’s ambition to create the healthiest generation of children ever.
List of signatories who signed the consensus statement: