Responding to the publication of Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England, Anna Feuchtwang, Chief Executive of the National Children’s Bureau, said:
"Babies, children and young people make up 25% of the population of England yet they are not always seen equitably in the national debate on health. Today, however, NCB welcomes the clear vision for children set out in the 10 Year Health Plan for England (‘the Plan’).
"It is positive to see the government restate its ambition to create the healthiest generation of children ever. The Plan acknowledges the highly concerning deterioration in child health outcomes identified by Lord Darzi’s investigation and that focused action will be needed to reverse this trend. We must now seize this opportunity to fundamentally reprioritise the way children are served by the NHS. The devil, of course, will be in the delivery.
"The Plan rightly states that prevention starts with children and young people and there are a number of important measures the government is taking on public health, including steps to address childhood obesity, improve vaccination take-up, and eliminate the harms of smoking and vaping among young people.
"The Neighbourhood Health Service model has huge potential to meet the needs of children closer to home, from the earliest point as needs emerge and without the need to wait for costly diagnostic pathways. We welcome the shift to neighbourhood health services and the clear intention that these will be developed in partnership with family hubs, schools, nurseries and colleges. We also warmly welcome the commitment to match Start for Life to Family Hubs expansion and to expand Start for life up to age 5. This will be critical in giving every child the best start in life.
"We know that for disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs (SEN), effective and joined-up health interventions are critical to enable them to learn and thrive, and so we welcome the intention set out in the Plan to align with the forthcoming schools white paper, and build on what we know works from models including Early Language Support for Every Child (ELSEC) and Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS). We urge system partners to use the insights from evidence and effective models, including the What Works in SEND programme and our vision for a different health model to achieve better outcomes for children, young people and their families.
"Along with disabled children and those with SEN, we will also be challenging the government to set out more explicitly how the Plan will address health inequalities faced by Black and Global Majority children and their families.
"All of these measures require a skilled and motivated health and public health workforce. We are happy to see commitments to increasing workforce capacity, underpinned by a transformative approach to deliver individualised care to patients. However, we need to be clear about the extent to which the child health workforce will be prioritised within this. NCB will work closely with relevant partners to ensure that a child health workforce be prioritised alongside other commitments in the upcoming NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. This means committing to the development of a specialised workforce that is well-equipped to cater to the specific needs of babies, children and young people.
"It is now critical the government works with children and families, and the organisations who represent them, to set out a clear process for how the Plan will be implemented. This must be laid out in the context of the recent changes to the health system including the planned merger of NHS England with the Department for Health and Social Care, as well as the cuts to Integrated Care Boards. These changes have created additional challenges for the government, and it must proceed with caution, so children don’t fall through the cracks of a strained health system.
"We look forward to continuing to work with government to ensure babies, children and young people are adequately prioritised in health policy."