Speaking at CYP Now’s Early Help Conference in London yesterday, PHE’s national lead for children, young people, and families, Eustace de Sousa, said tackling the issue is set to be one of the organisation's priorities over the next 18 months.
Pointing to PHE statistics showing that 27 per cent of five-year-old children in the country have tooth decay, he said there is “significant social inequality around poor oral health”.
“PHE will be seeking to move to a position where no child under five has poor oral health in this country,” he told delegates.
“It is a massive ambition but we know that through effective early intervention programmes we can achieve that.”
Pubic Health England, which was established in April 2013, advises government and supports local government and the NHS to improve public health.
De Sousa said the organisation is in the process of establishing a board with the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives to oversee the work of councils in improving public health.
“This is so we can accelerate the improvements we’ve seen in some parts of the country, improving the use of the evidence base, improve the competencies and capacities of the wider workforce and synergy of opportunities with other services," he said.
“We are already seeing how things are working at a local level. We would like to see that accelerated.”
Details of the new drive come as the transfer of public health responsibilities to local authorities is completed today with the commissioning responsibility for services for children aged five and under moving from the NHS to local government.
De Sousa said the transfer represents an opportunity to address health inequalities among children – giving other examples as child obesity and speech and language problems.
He said that commitments to addressing poor oral health and addressing speech and language problems are set to be added as elements of PHE’s pledge to ensure every child has the best start in life.
