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Members of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health call on the Chancellor to Keep the Promise - 5th of Apr, 2009
Let us keep the promise
We, members of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, would like to add our support to the call of over 110 Labour MPs (Observer 29.03.09) to the Chancellor to keep child poverty at the top of his mind as he prepares his Budget.
Poverty has severely limiting effects on children’s lives, wellbeing and health. Children in the poorest families are more likely to be born small and are at least twice as likely to die unexpectedly before their first birthdays than children in better off families. They are two and a half times as likely to suffer chronic illness as toddlers and are three times as likely to suffer mental health disorders throughout their lives. As children they are more likely to experience hospital admission which, in turn, places a heavy burden on the NHS.
Adults who experienced poverty as children face a shorter healthy life span and will die younger - in Glasgow's Calton area the average life expectancy is 54 years, compared with 82 years in Lenzie, just eight miles away.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that child poverty costs the UK at least £25 billion every year, over £2bn of which is additional healthcare costs. As we seek to rebuild a more sustainable economy, the Budget must help protect the UK economy from the high costs of this injustice.
We need the Government to 'Keep the Promise' it made to halve child poverty by 2010.This is not, as some commentators would argue, about funding designer trainers or mobile phones, but about an equal chance of a healthy childhood and a longer life which all children deserve and would make a vital long-term contribution to improving the health of our nation. It is every child’s right to be protected from the health impact of poverty, in a country as rich as our own.
Yours sincerely Professor Terence Stephenson, President Tony Waterston Raman Lakshman Nick Spencer Elspeth Webb David Vickers Janet Anderson Simon Lenton Fiona Finlay Matthew Ellis Emma Curtis Alistair Morris Sam Oddie A Nesbitt David Elliman Helen Bedford Anthony Costello R Sunderland Margaret Lynch Arunkumar Kuppuswamy Alf Nicholson C E Wylie Mandy Rose Peg Belson Anne Wilson Jane P Ritchie Olugbemiro Sodeande Sam Hartley Jayanthi Murali Ryan George Rachel Knowles Kenneth Nwosu Soo Yoong Lina Dutt Ruth Caudwell Jonathan Darling V Nasiah Caroline Johnson Kevin Windebank V Ramesh K Rao Peter Heinz Martina Noone Angela D’Amore Zulf Mughal Samira Manarchi- Holland Sachin Mannikar V K Puri Dilip Nathan Mujeeb Pervez Clare Peckham Gordon Bottomley Rajiv Shah Charolotte Wright S Edees Melanie Clements Vishna Rasiah E Gouta Susan Hayes Marko Kerac Sujatha Rajan Varsha Sadavarte Binu Anand Wilf Kelsall Ramesh Mehta V Nerminathan Nik Johnson Suresh Nelapatla Khulood Khwaja
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