Report on "Why Children Die" highlighted

This weekend, I read various articles referring to the report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and National Children’s Bureau. 

There are specific recommendations on some of the most preventable causes of death highlighted in this report, "Why Children Die". These include deaths from injuries, poisoning, road traffic accidents, poor mental health and neonatal deaths caused by risky behaviours during pregnancy.

I will be putting forward the report findings and the list of recommendations for consideration by council officials. The report detailed as follows:-

Taking action to reduce poverty and inequality

• Withdrawing the new cap on welfare spending and implementing a safety net so that the risks of rising living costs do not hit families with the lowest incomes

Implementing measures to promote healthy pregnancy including

• High quality Personal, Social, Health & Education and Sex & Relationships Education lessons in schools
• Action across the health system to promote smoking cessation in pregnancy.

Creating healthy, safe communities and environments

• Introducing minimum unit pricing for alcohol
• Reducing the national speed limit in built up areas to 20mph
• Introducing Graduated Licensing Schemes for novice drivers of all ages

Creating an action plan for improving child and adolescent mental health services

• Department of Health should commission a regular survey to identify the prevalence of mental health problems among children and young people
• Ofsted’s inspection framework for early years settings, schools and colleges should include consideration of the extent to which these settings provide an environment that promotes children and young people’s social and emotional wellbeing.

Better training for healthcare staff

• All frontline health professionals involved in the acute assessment of children and young people should utilise resources such as the https://spottingthesickchild.com/ web resource and complete relevant professional development so they are confident and competent to recognise a sick child
• Clinical teams looking after children and young people with known medical conditions make maximum use of tools to support improved communication and clarity around ongoing management, for example: introduction of epilepsy passports or asthma management plans where appropriate; cooperating with schools to meet their duty to support pupils with medical conditions.

The report also calls for a national child mortality database to ensure data can be compared and analysed across the UK.

Useful links:

RCPCH - http://www.rcpch.ac.uk/news/rcpch-and-ncb-launches-report-why-children-die