New report by health experts says England is 'failing its children'

CALLS FOR MORE ACTION TO HELP CHILDREN, WITH ‘WIDENING HEALTH INEQUALITIES DEPENDING ON THEIR WEALTH AND ETHNIC BACKGROUND’

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THE nation is “failing its children”, leading experts have warned in a new report, which calls for the health system to do more to prevent ill health among the young.

The report, from the Institute of Health Equity (IHE) and children’s charity Barnardo's, highlights how children in the UK have “some of the worst health outcomes in Europe”.

It says that the health and wellbeing of children and young people have been “deteriorating” for around 15 years, and outlines how there have been “widening health inequalities’ among children depending on their wealth and ethnic background.

Writing the foreword of the report, leading health expert Professor Sir Michael Marmot, right, said: “England is failing its children. The social gradient in child health is steep and widening.