Page 14 Daily Mail, Wednesday, March 4, 2020
THE health of British children is
falling behind those in most other
Western nations, a damning audit
reveals today.
Progress in child health has stalled
across the UK and in poor areas is in
reverse, according to a report by the
Royal College of Paediatrics and Chil-
dren’s Health.
The nation is ‘in danger of failing a gener-
ation’, it said. Shockingly, infant death rates
have increased slightly in England since
2016 – which experts warn is a ‘major wake-
up call’ for a developed country.
Rising child obesity, low breastfeeding
rates and deep poverty are also a major
concern, the authors say.
And growing inequality and cuts to public
health are making things far worse, the
report claims. The authors say even where
there have been notable improvements in
children’s health, the UK lags far behind
other countries.
For example, although there has been a
fall in the number of emergency asthma
admission rates across the UK, the country
By Ben Spencer
Medical Correspondent
a n d m o t h e r s a n d c h i l d r e n
receive better healthcare.
‘Yet UK infant mortality rates
have stalled, and in England
they actually got worse between
2016 and 2017. For a high-income
nation such as ours that should
be a major wake-up call.’
The report tracks 28 measures
of child health – including
asthma, epilepsy, mental health,
poverty, breastfeeding and obes-
ity. Nearly a quarter of four and
five year olds in England are
now overweight, having gradu-
ally increased from 21.9 per cent
in 2014 to 22.6 per cent now.
Breastfeeding rates in England
are at the lowest level since
2009, with only 30 per cent of
mothers breastfeeding for more
than six weeks.
Infant mortality – defined as
child deaths before the age of
one – is at 3.9 per 1,000 in Eng-
land, having risen slightly from
3.8 per 1,000 in 2016 and then
stayed static. Most developed
countries would expect infant
mortality to fall, not rise.
And more babies die in Eng-
land than the rest of the EU,
where the average is now 3.6 per
1,000. For France it is even lower- at 2.96 per 1,000, in Germany
3.1 per 1,000 and in Sweden it is
2.04 per 1,000.
In Wales infant mortality is 3.
per 1,000, Scotland 3.2, and
Northern Ireland 4.2. Youth vio-
lence, drug use and teenage sui-
cide rates across the UK are all
increasing, the report found.
Child vaccine coverage is down - from 94.2 per cent across Eng-
land in 2014 to 92.1 per cent now.
The Daily Mail is campaigning
for parents and health officials
to ensure that children do get
their jabs. Dr Rakhee Shah, a
community paediatrician who
contributed to the document,
said: ‘Investment in preventa-
tive health services must nowbe prioritised. England has seen
a huge decline in spending on
local services and I see the
results of that every day of my
working life especially for my
most disadvantaged patients.’
The authors called for a cross-departmental child health strat-
egy and restoration of an esti-
mated £1billion in cuts to the
public health grants for local
authorities.
Professor Russell Viner, presi-
dent of the RCPCH, said: ‘We’ve
got a lot of work ahead of us if
we’re to get a grip on... child
health in the UK. This report is
the only one of its kind to zoom
out and look at the full picture
and it’s not a pretty sight.’
Andrew Fellowes, public affairs
manager at the NSPCC, said:
‘It’s scandalous that progress in
children’s health is not improv-
ing and shameful that the most
disadvantaged are seeing the
biggest retreat.’
A Health Department spokes-
man said: ‘We want every child to
have the best start in life, regard-
less of their background, and
tackling health inequalities is a
priority for the Government.’THE WORRYING STATISTICS IN FULLTHEWORRY ICSINFULL
INFANT
MORTALITY■UK rate is
3.9 per
1,000 births –
up from 3.
in 2016Sweden2.
France2.
CHILD
VACCINE
■Coverage
is down -from 94.2 per
cent in 2014 to
92.1 per centnow
CHILD
OBESITY
■22.6 per cent
of children are
overweight when
they start school
aged four, up
from 21.9 per cent
in 2014CHILD
POVERTY
■Rose from 30%
to 31% between
2016/17 and
2017/FED BY
BREAST ONLY
■In first six weeks
fell from 30.1 per
cent to 29.6 per cent
between 2016/
and 2017/
in 2014
PHYSICAL
VIOLENCE
■Rose from 297.
per 100,000 in
2012 to 315.49 per
100,000 in
2017 among
the young■Under-19s who
suffered knife
injuries rose 36.
per 100,000 to 38.
per 100,000 in the
same period.pageS
18 stone by age of 15 30-÷We fall behind
Western nations
÷Infant mortality
rate up since 2016
Do you trust
neighbours?
One in 4 don’t
MOST people think their communities
are in decline and many no longer trust
their neighbours, a report found.
Researchers also said the number of
post offices, pubs and libraries has dras-
tically fallen in the past few decades.
Launching a cross-party review into
community, Conservative think tank
Onward said repairing the social fabric
of our neighbourhoods is the ‘defining
challenge of this Parliament’.
While well-being statistics are improv-
ing nationally, trust and life satisfaction
is falling locally.
One in four people now says that none
or few of their neighbours can be
trusted, up from one in seven in 2012.
Over the same period, the share of
people who feel their area has become
a worse place to live has increased by
nearly a third to a quarter.
Polling by the think tank and PR firm
Hanbury Strategy shows membership of
local organisations fell from 61 per cent
in 1993 to around 50 per cent today.
Since 2001, the number of pubs dropped
from 52,500 to 38,850, a 26 per cent
drop. Since 2005, libraries went from
4,392 to 3,187, a 27 per cent drop.
And post offices fell from 22,405 in 1982
to 11,547 in 2018, a 48 per cent drop.Netanyahu: I’ve
won the election
ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-
yahu claimed victory after the country’s
third election in a year – even though his
coalition appeared short of a majority.
Mr Netanyahu – leader since 2009, hav-
ing held the position from 1996 to 1999 –
is likely to be given the first shot at form-
ing a government to end the deadlock.
With 90 per cent of the vote counted,
Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party had 36 seats
in Israel’s 120-member parliament. The
Right-wing bloc, which includes ultra-
Orthodox Jewish parties, is projected to
win 59 seats, two short of a majority.
Their main challenger, the centrist Blue
and White party, was projected to win
32 seats. While there remains no guar-
antee that Netanyahu can form a coali-
tion, he hailed a ‘giant’ success.
‘This is a victory against all the odds,
because we stood against powerful
forces,’ Mr Netanyahu said.
President Reuven Rivlin will receive final
results by March 10 then has a week to ask
a candidate to form a government.THE mother of
crash victim Harry
D u n n b e l i e v e s
Boris Johnson will
not meet her fam-
ily because he is
‘frightened’.
Charlotte Charles
has written to the
Prime Minister ask-
ing for a meeting
after the US refused
to extradite Anne
Sacoolas, 42, an American intelligence
officer’s wife, over the death of motorcy-
clist Harry, pictured, last August. She has
admitted causing the accident after driv-
ing her SUV on the wrong side of the road
outside RAF Croughton in Northampton-
shire, but claimed diplomatic immunity.
In a letter to Mr Johnson, Miss Charles,
45, said: ‘We think that what happened to
Harry has highlighted a number of very
serious problems. This is not just an issue
of diplomatic immunity... I don’t know
why you haven’t wanted to see us. Please
don’t be frightened.’ Downing Street has
said Mr Johnson is ‘committed to secur-
ing justice for Harry’s family’.pM ‘won’t meet
Harry’s family’
‘It should be a major
wake-up call’‘a lot of work
ahead of us’Britain’s child
health shame
still has one of the highest mortality rates
in Europe for children and young people
with asthma. Dr Ronny Cheung, one of the
report authors, said: ‘Our report shows
troubling signs for children and young peo-
ple across the UK.
‘The harsh reality is that, in terms of
health and wellbeing, children born in the
UK are often worse off than those born in
other comparably wealthy countries. This
is especially true if the child is from a less
well-off background.’
He added: ‘Infant mortality is a globally-
recognised sign of how well a country is
looking after the health of its citizens.
‘Throughout the world, the number of
babies dying in their first year has been
steadily falling for decades, as incomes rise