Comprehensive Spending Review

UNICEF UK has undertaken new analysis which demonstrates that where children grow up has a significant impact on their early outcomes, with inequalities in health and developmental outcomes entrenched in the first few years of life. Key findings include:

Every Local Authority in the top 20% for deprivation is in the bottom 20% for multiple measures of child health and development.
The most deprived quintile of LAs are more than twice as far away from meeting the Government’s target for 75% children to reach a good level of development than the most affluent areas.
Five-year-olds in the most deprived LAs are three times more likely to have teeth removed due to decay than those in the most affluent areas.
Obesity rates for five-year-olds are twice as high in the most deprived areas than in the most affluent areas.
Babies and young children in the most deprived areas have 55% more visits to A&E than those in the least deprived areas.

While the school-based measures the Government has announced are welcome, this analysis demonstrates that inequalities are already well established by the age of five. Ahead of the Comprehensive Spending Review, UNICEF UK is therefore calling on the Government to urgently address the links between deprivation, poverty and developmental outcomes within the earliest years by:

Removing the two-child limit and benefit cap
Restoring investment in essential early childhood health and support services

The Institute of Health Visiting is delighted to see that the second recommendation includes a call on the Government to increase investment in health visiting. This includes adding their weight of support to the iHV policy recommendation to rebuild the health visiting workforce by recruiting an additional 1,000 health visitors a year over the spending review period. Health visiting is highlighted throughout the report as a crucial service which has an important role to play for all babies and young children, but which can be particularly valuable for babies and families experiencing poverty, as provision can help mitigate against the impact of poverty on early outcomes. We are delighted that UNICEF references our iHV State of Health Visiting reports in this new report.