In February 2024, the UK Academy of Medical Sciences hosted an international policy workshop focussing on child health. The workshop convened over 40 experts from the UK, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and the US to review the current state of play of child health and inequity in each country, and to identify potential solutions.
Professor Rosalind Smyth FMedSci, Vice-President (Clinical) at the Academy of Medical Sciences, comments:
“The first five years of a child's life are crucial for establishing the foundations for lifelong health and wellbeing. However, in many countries, we are seeing a deterioration in young children's health, with those from more disadvantaged backgrounds experiencing the worst outcomes.
Investing in early childhood development is not only the right thing to do for our children, but it also makes sound economic sense with reduced healthcare costs, increased productivity and stronger economic growth."
A full report with further detail on the discussions at the workshop will be available in Autumn 2024.
Participants included parent representatives, who provided critical input from the health and social care service-user perspective, as well as researchers and policy professionals.
The international policy workshop was held following the publication of the report from the UK Academy, ‘Prioritising early childhood to promote the nation’s health, wellbeing and prosperity’, which highlighted that the health and wellbeing of young children has deteriorated markedly in the UK and sets out some examples of effective, evidence-based interventions that can be made to improve child and lifelong health.
Participants at the international policy workshop noted that to address the challenges we are seeing today in child health and increases in inequity, their respective countries should heed the following five priority areas for policymakers:
- Children and families should be at the heart of developing solutions to better health, education, wellbeing, and equity. These solutions will require a unifying, cross-sectoral vision at local, regional, and national levels using evidence to inform decisions.
- This unifying, cross-sectoral vision will enable governments to address the inequities, often driven by poverty, discrimination, racism, and other social determinants, which are leading to the decline in children’s health and wellbeing.
- Transformational change will be needed over generations to improve child health and wellbeing, so policies and funding must be sustained and co-ordinated to tackle inequities.
- We already have a strong evidence base to support some effective solutions, as highlighted in the Academy’s UK report and by participants at the workshop; policymakers should focus on implementing these solutions, working closely with children and families.
- Researchers should work across borders and disciplinary boundaries to investigate the factors affecting the health and wellbeing of young children. This should be supported by effective, co-ordinated longitudinal data platforms (e.g. ECHILD*), to allow for nimble surveillance, evaluation of programmes and policies, and economic assessments to guide resource allocation decisions.
References
* UCL (2024). ECHILD project website: ECHILD stands for Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data.
Participating Academy and Society statement endorsements
- Academy of Medical Sciences
- Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science London
- Royal Society Te Apārangi
- Singapore National Academy of Science
Further endorsements
- Cambridge Children’s Hospital
- World Federation of Public Health Associations
- UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health
- The Global Maternal and Child Oral Health Center at Seoul National University
- Edwin SH Leong Centre for Healthy Children, University of Toronto
This policy workshop is supported through the International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF). ISPF is managed by the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and delivered by a consortium of the UK’s leading research bodies, including the UK National Academies.
Prioritising health in the early years - Statement