Themes
Across our 12 indicators, three cross-cutting themes became apparent as recurring drivers of worrying outcomes for children and young people.
- Child health data gaps: Poor quality and inconsistent data recording and sharing to measure and monitor child health and wellbeing outcomes makes it difficult to develop evidence-based policy recommendations and targets for improvement.
- Widening child health inequalities: Strong evidence clearly shows how social determinants influence health outcomes, and in particular how children growing up in deprived areas are more likely to experience worse outcomes for health and wellbeing.
- Underinvestment in the child health workforce: Inequitable funding in the child health workforce has resulted in their limited capacity to deliver timely support and provide joined up working across child health services.
Without urgent action, paediatricians are clear that we risk raising one of the unhealthiest generations of children in recent years. State of Child Health 2026 sets out a roadmap for change. Our 12 child health indicators provide a practical framework for current and future governments to track and measure progress on children’s health outcomes.
To improve child health outcomes in England, the UK government must deliver on these three priorities.
Recommendation 1: Data
Strengthen the quality, collection and sharing of child health data, including developing a single overarching measure of children’s health and wellbeing to track progress towards the healthiest generation of children ever.
There is currently no single, UK-wide, child-specific headline measure of health and wellbeing that tracks both outcomes and inequalities together and is used explicitly for accountability.
This isn’t about creating something entirely new – it builds on established approaches such as the ONS wellbeing measures and international child wellbeing indices. The aim is to bring together a small number of key indicators into a single, clear measure that tracks whether children’s health is improving overall and whether inequalities are narrowing.
Our State of Child Health report brings together 12 key indicators into one place, providing a strong foundation for developing this measure and ensuring clear accountability for progress over time.
Recommendation 2: Targets
Commit to explicit, meaningful national targets to improve children’s health and reduce inequalities across all 12 indicators.
There is currently no consistent, UK-wide set of child health targets that brings together outcomes and inequalities to drive sustained national action and accountability.
Existing targets are often fragmented, short-term or misaligned across the UK, meaning progress is inconsistent and inequalities persist.
Committing to a clear set of national targets would ensure that improving outcomes and narrowing the gap between the most and least disadvantaged children is a sustained priority across government.
Our State of Child Health report brings together 12 key indicators into one place, providing a strong foundation for these targets and offering a consistent framework for measuring progress over time.
Recommendation 3: Investment
Introduce a Children’s Health Investment Standard to address the inequity in spending between child and adult health services, alongside a funded, long-term child health workforce strategy.
There is currently no dedicated mechanism to ensure that investment in children’s health services matches need, and spending remains disproportionately weighted towards adult services. This imbalance has contributed to workforce shortages and limited capacity across child health services, restricting access to timely, preventative and joined-up care.
Introducing a Children’s Health Investment Standard, alongside a funded, long-term workforce plan, would help to rebalance funding, ensure sufficient capacity across the child health workforce, and support delivery of improved outcomes.
The evidence set out in our State of Child Health report highlights how underinvestment is a key driver of worsening outcomes across multiple indicators, reinforcing the need for sustained and targeted investment.
Further nation-specific and indicator-specific recommendations are set out throughout State of Child Health 2026, providing detailed actions across all 12 indicators to improve outcomes and tackle inequalities.