The ‘Ten actions the government can take to improve children’s health’ briefing highlights the importance of addressing various factors influencing children’s welfare, calling for coordinated action across all government departments, beyond Health and Education.
These ten recommendations align closely with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s (RCPCH) Blueprint, which highlighted the rising demand for paediatric services.
RCPCH Officer for Health Services, Dr Ronny Cheung, said:
Today’s message from the King’s Fund is clear: the health and wellbeing of our children is deteriorating. As a paediatrician I have seen how years of underinvestment in child health services has left our children more sick and less resilient than before. The UK now has some of the worst child health outcomes in Europe. However, there are still clear and meaningful steps the UK government can take to address this.
RCPCH has been making many of the same calls outlined by the King’s Fund, including the urgent need to make improving child health a national priority, and to remain a focus for all integrated care systems across the country, not just a few. For too long, child health services have been neglected in major health policy and funding announcements. Addressing shortages in the child health workforce and allocating an equitable share of funding to child health services in the upcoming spending review are vital. The report also rightly recognises the need for further action to reach childhood immunisation targets and improve access to healthier foods for children, areas in which we know the UK is falling far behind.
Since its election, the UK Government has made many promising statements on children’s health, but we are yet to see concrete evidence that child health is embedded at the centre of government. The upcoming 10 Year Health Plan provides a further opportunity for the government to set out how it will meet its own goal to create the healthiest generation of children ever as well as the College’s call to take child health services from left behind to leading the way.