- A report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) warns that the UK risks raising its unhealthiest generation in decades, as child health outcomes in England have either worsened or stagnated across 12 key indicators over the past decade.
- The RCPCH's analysis highlights a worrying outlook for British children, with significant declines or stagnation in areas such as infant mortality, oral health, obesity, mental health and vaccination rates, particularly affecting children from ethnic minorities and the most deprived areas.
- Specific concerns include high infant mortality, plummeting vaccination coverage below the 95 per cent target, 22 per cent of five-year-olds experiencing tooth decay, and a reversal in progress against asthma emergency admissions, alongside abnormally high rates of childhood obesity.
- To address these issues, the RCPCH urges the government to implement explicit national targets for child health, introduce a children’s health investment standard, develop a funded long-term child health workforce strategy, and improve the collection of child health data.
- A government spokesperson acknowledged the challenges, stating that decisive action is being taken to improve child health, including ending the two-child limit, expanding mental health support, and providing free school meals and breakfast clubs.
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