iHV responds to the Labour Party’s Child Health Action Plan

Following yesterday’s launch by the Labour Party of their “Health Mission” in Manchester, the party has published its Child Health Action Plan. Labour’s ambition is for this to be the healthiest generation of children ever.

Labour’s Child Health Action Plan to:

Cut waiting lists for children
End the crisis in child mental health
Transform NHS dentistry
Crackdown on smoking and vaping
Ban junk food advertising to children
Introduce breakfast clubs for all primary school children
Protect children from the growth of infectious diseases
This includes delivering on the NHS workforce plan, training more health visitors so parents and babies get the best possible support. Plus reforming the service to allow health visitors to administer routine immunisations to vulnerable and at-risk children, ensuring more are protected from infectious diseases.

Alison Morton, iHV CEO, responded to the Labour Party’s Child Health Action Plan:

“We are delighted to see that the Labour Party is pushing ahead with their plans to grow the health visitor workforce in their Child Health Action Plan. This will build capacity in the service to tackle a wide range of inequalities in child health, as well as supporting families to access healthcare – for example, to improve immunisation uptake for families who do not currently experience easy access to services (and consequently often experience the worst health outcomes), reduce pressures on A&E departments for minor illnesses, and improve oral health. These have always been part of the role of health visitors but have fallen by the wayside in many areas, as services have been reduced to “firefighting” and child protection due to serious workforce shortages.

“If we’re serious about improving the health of our nation’s children, it is imperative that health visitors get back to their core “health” function, working with families to prevent, identify and treat problems before they reach crisis point.”

At the iHV, we have been working with all political parties and government officials to ensure that the health of our nation’s babies and young children is taken seriously. We have shared our Vision for health visiting and call for more health visitors as an important part of the solution to tackling the current poor state of child health and widening inequalities. We will continue in our efforts to influence policies affecting health as all parties set out their manifesto plans for child health ahead of a general election expected this year.

Read Labour’s Child Health Action Plan

iHV CEO attends launch of UK Labour’s Health Mission in Manchester today

Today, Alison Morton, iHV CEO, will be joining health leaders in Manchester to hear from Sir Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting about the UK Labour Party’s plans to improve the health of our nation. Sir Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting are expected to outline their plans and the party’s commitment to ensure that all children have the building block for a healthy life.

Keir Starmer will launch Labour’s Health Mission Tour in Manchester with a speech to CEOs, Chairs and Presidents from Royal Colleges, the NHS, and local and national health charities at a reception in central Manchester with Labour Mayor Andy Burnham, local MPs and members of Labour’s Shadow Health team also in attendance.

The reception marks the first in a series of health-focused visits in the North West where Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting will set out Labour’s Health Mission.

Charities represented at the event include the British Heart Foundation, Age UK, Rethink, Alzheimer’s UK, the Stroke Association and the Institute of Health Visiting. A range of Royal Colleges and staff representatives will also be in attendance including the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Physicians, and the GMB. NHS leaders and sector bodies will also join the event including CEOs of NHS Trusts and representatives from the Patients Association, health think tanks, NHS Confederation and NHS Providers.

Labour representatives attending the event include: Keir Starmer, Wes Streeting, Andy Burnham, Preet Gill, Alison McGovern, Andrew Gwynne, Karin Smyth and Bev Craig (Leader of Manchester City Council).

Alison Morton, CEO of the Institute of Health Visiting says:

“We have campaigned, alongside hundreds of other leading organisations and charities working with families, for investment to ensure that every child really does have the best start in life. The Labour Party’s commitment to build a future where all children can thrive is very welcome and urgently needed. Getting it right at the start of life will be a critical first step in building strong foundations for health that can last a lifetime.

“This reform is long overdue, as hundreds of thousands of babies and young children are currently not getting the support that they need. We have a poor state of child health across our nation compared to most other similar nations and too many lives are being unnecessarily harmed or cut short. It doesn’t have to be this way, change is possible.

“Health visitors have an important role to play, working with families to prevent, identify and treat problems before they reach crisis point. The Labour Party’s commitment to grow the health visitor workforce is essential to rebuild the service after eight years of cuts that have led to a 40% reduction in the number of health visitors in England. When sufficiently resourced, health visitors can take pressure off busy A&E departments and primary care, providing support for families in the heart of the community.

“Investing in our children’s health is not only the right thing to do, it also makes sound economic sense.”

iHV attends launch of Labour Party’s Health Mission

iHV attends launch of the Labour Party’s Health Mission to build an NHS fit for the future and welcomes pledge to train 5,000 more health visitors.

Alison Morton, the Institute of Health Visiting’s CEO, attended the launch of the Labour party’s Health Mission in Essex today. The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, set out his party’s plans to ‘make the NHS fit for the future’ by ‘fixing the fundamentals and renewing its purpose’, including a welcome pledge to train 5,000 more health visitors.

Responding to this announcement on behalf of the iHV, Alison Morton said:

“The Labour Party’s commitment to a long-term plan to reduce preventable illness and cut health inequalities is very welcome and urgently needed. Getting it right at the start of life will be a critical first step in building strong foundations for health that can last a lifetime.

“This reform is long overdue, as hundreds of thousands of babies and young children are currently not getting the support that they need. We have a poor state of child health across our nation compared to most other similar nations and too many lives are being unnecessarily harmed or cut short. It doesn’t have to be this way, change is possible.

“We have campaigned, alongside hundreds of other leading organisations and charities working with families, for investment in health visiting services which provide a vital safety-net for all families. The Labour Party’s commitment to train 5,000 more health visitors is essential to rebuild the service after eight years of cuts that have led to a 40% reduction in the number of health visitors in England.

“This investment will ensure that health visitors are able to meet the scale of the challenge and work with families to prevent, identify and treat problems before they reach crisis point. Investing in our children’s health is not only the right thing to do, it also makes sound economic sense.

“We look forward to working with the Labour party on next steps and call on all political parties to sign up to a cross-party long-term plan to improve child health and reduce inequalities – our children’s health is too important to be treated as a Cinderella policy and the political football that it has become in recent years.”

Alongside training 5,000 more health visitors, the Labour government announced that they would increase the NHS workforce by training 7,500 new doctors and 10,000 nurses each year. They also pledged to bring down ambulance response times, cut cardiovascular disease deaths by a quarter, and support women with mental health problems in pregnancy and the postnatal period, as well as during the menopause and older age. In terms of tackling the wider determinants of health, alongside their plans to build a fairer society, the party would ban junk food ads for children and strengthen physical activity in the school curriculum, following a decade where childhood obesity has risen and participation in competitive sport has fallen.

Breaking news: Labour party commits to train 5,000 new health visitors

At today’s Labour Party conference, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves MP, set out the opposition’s plans to build strong public services as the foundations for a strong society. Health visitors in England will be particularly encouraged to hear that this included a commitment to train 5,000 more health visitors to address the current workforce shortages.

Alison Morton, iHV Executive Director, welcomed today’s announcement:

“We are delighted by today’s commitment by the Labour Party to rebuild the health visiting service by training 5,000 new health visitors. Years of underinvestment in health visiting and workforce cuts have been a costly mistake, putting people at risk of poorer health and storing up problems for the future. Each year, billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is being wasted on soaring costs of late intervention, and families are facing the brunt of this with a postcode lottery of health visiting support. Today’s welcomed announcement is good news for babies, children and families, and the health visiting workforce that supports them.

“Currently, children growing up in England experience a poor state of child health when compared to comparable nations, and too many vulnerable children are invisible to services and not getting the support that they need. This needs to change. We have more evidence than any other generation that inequalities start early in life, the effects are cumulative and can last a lifetime if not addressed. The challenges of public health need to be taken seriously and it is time to change the narrative – spending on public health, and the health visiting service, should not be seen as a cost, but rather a smart investment in our children’s future and the future of our society. We look forward to working with the UK Labour Party on next steps.”

Read iHV's letter to Rachel Reeves MP following her speech

Listen to the announcement on the clip below – source BBC News.