The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) in the UK has published a report on Child Health in the UK which is a hard hitting update of the College's first report written in 2017, it can be found here
https://stateofchildhealth.rcpch.ac.uk/evidence/at-a-glance/
This report highlights what may be a unique role of the RCPCH in providing strong advocacy for child public health and a critical analysis of government policy. It would be valuable to hear of other paediatric associations which have taken on advocacy in this way - the American Academy of Pediatrics has certainly done so.
Some examples from the report are as follows:
* progress in reducing child and adolescent mortality has stalled
* progress in reducing smoking during pregnancy has stalled
* 34% of children and young people aged 10-11 are overweight or obese
* uptake of early vaccination has fallen
* child poverty has increased for those in working families
* there is an increase in emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression in children 5-15yrs in England
Recommendations including the following:
* UK Government should introduce a cross-departmental National Child Health and Wellbeing Strategy to address and monitor child poverty and health inequalities.
* Reintroduce national targets to reduce child poverty rates and introduce specific health inequality targets for key areas of child health.
* Include a specific focus for the first 1,000 days of life.
Please comment if your own paediatric association has carried out similar work and what the effect has been on government policy. There are significant problems in child health in the UK which are partly due to NHS funding deficiencies and partly due to policy defects, and the RCPCH is part of a strong lobby network to rectify these problems - once the current Corona virus epidemic has faded out!
Tony Waterston
CHIFA profile: Tony Waterston is a retired consultant paediatrician who worked mainly in the community in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He spent 6 years working in Zambia and Zimbabwe and directed the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Diploma in Palestinian Child Health teaching programme in the occupied Palestinian territories. He was an Editor of the Journal of Tropical Pediatrics and is on the Executive Committee of the International Society for Social Pediatrics. His academic interests are child poverty, advocacy for child health and children's rights. He is currently the lead moderator of CHIFA. www.chifa.org <http://www.chifa.org/> He is also a member of the HIFA Steering Group. www.hifa.org/people/steering-group www.hifa.org/support/members/tony
Email: Tony.Waterston AT newcastle.ac.uk
