Call for urgent updates to the Health and Care bill to focus adequately on children

The Children and Young People’s Health Policy Influencing Group wrote a letter to the Secretary of State, Matt Hancock, as a response to recent discussions on the Integration and Innovation White Paper and the forthcoming Health and Care Bill, saying “The evidence is crystal clear that in order to achieve your goal of improving population health, tackling health inequalities, and preventing poor health later in life, there must be a strong focus on children and young people. However, we have serious concerns that these proposed changes have not been planned with children and young people in mind.”

The letter raises concerns, including:

• The benefits of integration have only been considered from the perspectives of adults and the services adults use;
• There has been little focus on how the proposed changes will affect existing duties on the NHS and other bodies as they relate to children and young people; and
• There is a risk that children and young people will become invisible within Integrated Care Systems.

Read the letter in full

The CBF is one of 35 members of the Children and Young People’s Health Policy Influencing Group.

In addition to the work focussed on children The CBF will continue to influence the Bill on behalf of people of all ages with a severe learning disability and their families.