The budget statement includes:
- Increase in funding for breakfast clubs.
- An extension of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy to address obesity.
- A financial uplift to SEND provision of £1 billion for this year.
- Previously announced funding for elective appointments and a re-commitment to 18 weeks wait target.
- Above inflation rise for NHS plus additional capital funding for health trusts to spend on repairing infrastructure and to buy new equipment such as scanners.
- Money to continue delivery of a network of Family Hubs.
- Money to open new mental health crisis centres.
RCPCH President, Professor Steve Turner, said:
Today's budget shows the government is serious about raising the bar when it comes to prevention of ill health in children. The College welcomes the announcement that the Soft Drinks Industry Levy will be extended and further funding for breakfast clubs, which will support a generation of children to lead healthy, happy, and productive lives through to adulthood.
Important steps have also been taken today that should help to address unacceptable levels of child poverty. However, it is disappointing to see the that two-child limit remains, unfairly keeping over a million children in poverty and driving poor child health outcomes and health inequalities.
What is less clear is how the government plans to address the significant and specific pressure that child health services are under. The Darzi Review was clear in its diagnosis - our children are sicker than ever and this needs to change. Announcements from the Chancellor on the NHS are positive, but it remains to be seen how children and child health services are considered as part of these. We have repeatedly said that unless children and child health services receive specific attention then they are forgotten.
As the Health Secretary sets out his plans to deliver 40,000 extra appointments in the NHS as well as wider NHS reforms, we urge him to remember the words of Lord Darzi, and to set out specifically how the government will address the unacceptable state of child health services today. Our blueprint for health services is clear in the steps that the government can take to recover child health services and take them from left behind to leading the way, and raising the heathiest generation ever.