NHS reforms fail to address child health needs, sector leaders warn

The NHS Confederation and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) held a consultation event to ask children’s health and social care leaders what they think about the changes to the NHS.

A report based on the findings from the event argued that professionals think government has paid too little attention to how the reforms will affect child health and warned that children with complex health problems could lose out under the new system.

This is because the reforms create a more fragmented system in which children’s different needs will be the responsibility of several different organisations.

The leaders argued that the divide between clinical commissioning groups and health and wellbeing boards could also make it harder to provide joined-up services for children and families because commissioning bodies will not be co-terminus and will serve different geographical populations.