Labour has published its Child Health Action Plan setting out seven commitments:
- Cut waiting lists for children accessing planned paediatric services
- End the crisis in child mental health by cutting waiting lists for mental health services by recruiting thousands more staff, introducing specialst mental health support for children and young people in every school and delivering an open access children and young people's mental health hub for every community.
- Tranform NHS dentistry, delivering 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments per year, recruiting more dentists and introducing a targeted national surpvised toothbrushing programme for 3-5 year olds in fully funded breakfast clubs.
- 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 by training more health visitors and allowing them to administer routine immunisations to vulnerable and at-risk children, ensuring more are protected from infestious diseases.
Labour propose paying for the above by abolishing the non-dom tax status, abolishing tax loopholes for private equity fund managers and tax breaks for private schools.
Our response
Responding to Labour’s Child Health Action Plan, Dr Rhidian Hughes, Chief Executive of the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG) says:
‘We welcome Labour’s Child Health Action Plan but it is vital that commitments are inclusive of all children, given the inequalities and disparities we know disabled children and their families face.
‘Disabled children deserve to live healthy and happy lives but the way in which our current health, care and education system operates, often means disabled children and their families struggle to access the support they need, facing unnecessary battles, barriers and delays.
‘To fully realise its ambitions, Labour must ensure disabled children and their families are at the heart of its plans, so that every child’s health is prioritised.’