‘Urgent action’ required on failing child health

A new report from the Academy of Medical Sciences has highlighted wide-ranging evidence of declining health among children under five in the UK, calling on policymakers to take urgent action to address the situation.

It warned that major health issues like infant mortality, obesity and tooth decay are not only damaging the nation’s youngest citizens and their future but also its economic prosperity, with the cost of inaction estimated to be at least £16bn a year.

In recent years, progress on child health in the UK has stalled. Infant survival rates are worse than in 60 percent of similar countries and the number of children living in extreme poverty tripled between 2019 and 2022. Demand for children’s mental health services have surged and more than a fifth of five-year-old children are overweight or obese, with those living in the most deprived areas twice as likely to be obese as those in affluent areas. One in four is affected by tooth decay. Vaccination rates have plunged below World Health Organization safety thresholds, threatening outbreaks.

Issues such as the Covid pandemic, increased cost of living and climate change compound widespread inequality and are likely to make early years health in the UK even worse.

The report outlined a gathering crisis across the early years, from preconception through pregnancy to the first five years of life. It said that this entire period, often overlooked in policy, the health service and research, is crucial for laying the foundations for lifelong mental and physical health as healthy children are more likely to grow into healthy, productive adults.

Child health experts from across the UK produced the report, which includes perspectives from parents and carers with lived experience.

Drawing on an extensive body of evidence, the authors made five recommendations for governments and policymakers to urgently start addressing the issues raised:

1. Implementing effective early years interventions to improve child health and wellbeing and promote research to identify further approaches
2. Establishing a unifying vision across government for the early years to coordinate policies and resources
3. Addressing the decline in child and family health workforce and fragmentation across sectors to deliver effective services
4. Improving collection and access to data on the wider determinants of child health to enable research and policy implementation
5. Ensuring diverse voices of children, parents and carers are represented in developing early years policies and interventions

While stressing that no single age period determines health outcomes, the report included data showing that frontloading investment in the earliest years, including preconception and during pregnancy, delivers lifelong benefits by establishing healthy foundations to reduce the risk of complex health issues. Early childhood is a cost-effective time to intervene compared to opportunities later in life.

Report co-chair Professor Helen Minnis said: ‘Every child has the right to a safe and healthy childhood. It is shameful that the UK is failing to provide this. Child deaths are rising, infant survival lags behind comparable countries and preventable physical and mental health issues plague our youngest citizens. The science is clear – we are betraying our children. Unless the health of babies and young children is urgently prioritised, we condemn many to a life of poorer health and lost potential. The time to act is now.’

Images: Shutterstock and Vitolda Klein

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