17.05.13
RCPCH calls for collective effort to tackle child inequality
Improving health and wellbeing for children will take “collective effort”, the RCPCH has stated in response to the BMA’s Growing Up in the UK report.
The report warned that the Government’s austerity policies are cutting welfare support and “failing” vulnerable children. It is “shortsighted” to cut funding from health intervention projects addressing causes of social breakdown, it added.
The BMA recommended parenting classes, improved maternal nutrition, ministerial accountability for children’s health and wellbeing and families identified where their lifestyles could affect the health of unborn children.
Professor Averil Mansfield, chair of the BMA's board of science, said: “The BMA is particularly concerned that any improvements in tackling child poverty are in danger of being eroded by some government welfare policies. Children should not pay the price for the economic downturn.”
Dr Hilary Cass, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, (RCPCH) said: “The message is loud and clear; the UK has a lot of work to do to ensure our children are as healthy as they could, should and deserve to be.
“Parents must be supported to give their children the best start in life and we need to rise to the challenges set out in this report. We have to significantly reduce number of children who are dying unnecessarily; whether that’s from conditions such as asthma or preventable accidents and we have to tackle the big public health threats to children such as obesity and smoking.
“Only then will the UK be able stand beside the best performing counties and give our children and young people the best possible chance of leading healthy lives.”
Louise Silverton, director for midwifery at the Royal College of Midwives, (RCM) called it a “significant report” that identified “the still glaring health inequalities in the UK”.
She said: “To produce healthier children the whole system that supports parents and children right through childhood has to be resourced and working together.”
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