Today, Alder Hey Children’s Charity launches the Put Children First coalition to end child health inequality in the UK – and save the country billions of pounds.
Put Children First is calling on Government to make children the political priority when redesigning the health service, creating a children’s centred NHS that is digitally enabled and focused on prevention and community care.
A new NHS for children would tackle health inequalities which cripple public services, currently costing £39 billioni a year. Spending on public services is substantially higher in areas where child poverty is high, because children growing up in poverty require additional measures and support, including social services interventions and greater NHS spending to tackle ill health.
A Children’s NHS
Political leaders and decision makers should listen to children and young people, clinicians, academics and other experts and put children at the heart of every policy.
A Children’s NHS
1. Appoint a children’s health representative to inform the Ministerial taskforce on child poverty.
2. Develop a commissioning framework specifically for children and young people to enable partners to jointly commission care that is holistic and makes use of limited resource.
3. Appoint a children’s representative on every mission delivery board across Government.
In a unique move for a charity linked to an NHS Trust, charity leaders felt compelled to act after listening to children, young people, parents and clinicians, who are experiencing and witnessing first hand worsening health and wellbeing due to poverty and social inequality.
Hospitals and community services are seeing rising numbers of diseases in children which should have been eradicated – from measles to rickets to preventative dental decay. Children are presenting with conditions usually only seen in adults such as lung disease and obesity – and the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a rise in mental health related illnesses.
The issues are sharpened in the North where poverty and inequalities are at their peak, with health outcomes for children and young people worse than in less deprived areas.
Fiona Ashcroft, CEO of Alder Hey Children’s Charity said: “Children and young people are our future scientists, innovators, artists, medics and entrepreneurs. Their health needs have changed and rising inequality is limiting their life chances.
Children have not been a political priority for over a decade – and the health service has not been designed or commissioned with children and young people in mind. That’s why as a charity we are taking this unprecedented step to advocate for children and young people.”
“We can only do this by working together with political leaders and other partners to create a collaborative health and social care system which has a shared focus on the needs of children and young people.”
Academics from the University of Liverpool say that making children a political priority could have an extraordinary impact on the NHS and the country’s finances. In a recent report, researchers said that reducing child poverty with measures such as ditching the two-child benefit cap would cut the number of infant deaths and children in care, as well as rates of childhood nutritional anaemia and emergency admissions. The most deprived regions would benefit the most, and the changes would also have huge beneficial knock-on effects on local authorities and the NHS.
Professor David Taylor Robinson – one of the authors of the report and Honorary Consultant in Public Health at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital – said:
“We have seen extremely worrying trends in child health indicators over recent years. Liverpool is at the sharp end of these inequalities. Over a third of children are growing up in poverty, this is a disaster for child health. It is vital that leaders put children and young people at the centre of policy. What is required is clear: we must tackle child poverty, reinvest in preventative services, and develop a national strategy to address health inequalities.”
The coalition’s first campaign Ignite the Sparks hopes to inspire decision makers to make children a political priority, by bringing to life the unique talents and potential of four bright ‘Sparks’ and asking those in charge not to waste their potential.
At the launch today which took place at Alder Hey, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Steve Rotheram chaired a panel of young people who told politicians how to make their lives healthier: “Alder Hey Children’s Charity is the perfect place to start this important conversation about the future of child health and advocating for the children of our region and beyond. The work done here is nothing short of inspiring, and it shows the difference that great community care can make in a child’s life.
“There are lots of ideas about how we can improve the NHS, but one thing we all agree on is that it has to be fit for the future. The government is committed to making sure our healthcare system is ready to meet the challenges ahead, and it’s places like Alder Hey that show how we can deliver that vision. By working together, we can continue to build an NHS that’s innovative, accessible, and responsive to the needs of everyone. We all want to see a health service that gives every child the chance to thrive and ensures that no one is left behind. That’s what this conversation is really about—how we keep building a better, stronger NHS for the next generation.”
Get involved:
Join the coalition: www.putchildrenfirst.info/joinusjoinin