Support for children and young people top priority in new Marmot report
Joe Lepper
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Measures to support the mental health needs and employment prospects of young people need to be prioritised amid Covid-19 recovery plans, according to a report from health inequalities expert Professor Michael Marmot.
Marmot has this week unveiled a fresh set of recommendations on how to reduce health inequalities post pandemic.
-
Research: The Mental Health Needs of Children and Young People with Learning Disabilities
-
Analysis: Covid deepens disabled child needs
This follows on from his Build Back Fairer: The Covid -19 Marmot Review, which was published in December last year and raised concerns about the damage caused by the health crisis to children’s health and wellbeing.
His latest review says that priortising support for children and young people is vital to tackling long-term inequalities.
“While children and young people have been at far less risk from the disease than older adults, they have been disproportionately, and inequitably, harmed by the impacts of restrictions and lockdowns and are experiencing the most rapid increases in unemployment alongside poor mental health, already at concerning levels pre-pandemic,” he warns.
Recommendations include additional support for early years settings, school based mental health services and help for 18–to 25-year-olds to find work, training and education opportunities.
Marmot’s review has been commissioned by the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, which covers a region that had a 25 per cent higher Covid-19 death rate than England's average during the health crisis.
New @MarmotIHE review lays out a clear #BuildBackFairer framework to reduce health inequities for future generations. Greater Manchester’s devolved powers, leadership and strong existing programmes makes it well positioned to take the lead https://t.co/Bi2bMC6I1E
— Sir Michael Marmot (@MichaelMarmot) June 30, 2021
Across the North West region life expectancy fell in 2020 by 1.6 years for men and 1.2 years for women compared to an England wide fall of 1.3 years and 0.9 years, respectively.
Marmot whose original review into health inequalities was published in 2010, said that Greater Manchester’s “high levels of avoidable health inequalities” are “as a result of longstanding economic and social inequalities, and as across the country, ethnic disadvantage”.
He is also calling for local areas to have greater powers to tackle health inequalities through regional devolution. He notes that while Greater Manchester already has more powers than other regions through its Combined Authority, “there are still significant limitations” in how far it “can make decisions that affect health and equity”.
Greater powers to control local employment services, labour market, social housing and early years policies are needed among devolved regions, he added.