Early life health ‘as important as national defence'
Joe Lepper
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
The cost of failing to tackle child mental health issues and abuse in the first 1,001 days of a child's life costs taxpayers £23bn a year, according to a report by MPs and Lords.
The report, Building Great Britons, says that mental health problems, neglect and abuse can be passed down from one generation to the next “creating a vicious cycle and damaging environment in which to grow up”.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Conception to Age 2 - First 1,001 Days, which published the report today, called for spending on early intervention for toddlers to be given the same priority by government as national defence to address the problems.
Tim Loughton, chairman of the APPG and former children’s minister, said: “The cost of failing to deal adequately with perinatal mental health and child maltreatment has been estimated at £23bn each year. Tackling it should be no less a priority for our politicians and our health and social care professionals than defence of the realm.”
The APPG report also proposes a raft of recommendations to ensure local children’s professionals better target vulnerable children at an early age and that across central and local government there is a strong focus on breaking the cycle of “disadvantage, inequality, dysfunction and child maltreatment”.
All councils, clinical commissioning groups and health and wellbeing boards as well as central government should bring in a "1,001 days" strategy, says the report. This should prioritise the social and emotional development of young children and be closely monitored with performance scorecards published regularly.
A new cross-departmental ministerial role – minister for families and best start in life – should also be created. This echoes a similar call for a cross-government children’s minister made by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on A Fit and Healthy Childhood earlier this week.
Children’s centres also need to be the main source of support for vulnerable families with young children. In addition, more funding needs to be put into evaluating and researching effective interventions.
Dr Cheryll Adams, executive director of the Institute of Health Visiting, praised the report's recommendations. She said: “This is a seminal piece of work which, if widely supported by all those with the power to implement its findings, could make a huge difference to the health and wellbeing of our society. The next step must be to increase national investment into this critical period of all our lives.”
The latest APPG report builds on work it carried out last year on the importance of the first 1,001 days of a child's life.
