The Department of Health is sending in a support team to help the 43 areas in England with the highest rates of infant mortality among routine and manual workers, in a bid to reach its health inequalities target.

A target to reduce national health inequalities was set in 2001 and updated in 2004. It states that by 2010 the gap in infant mortality between routine and manual groups and the population as a whole should be reduced by at least 10%.

Launching the initiative, the public health minister, Dawn Primarolo, said, “Every year in England 3000 babies die before the age of 1. Every one is an equal tragedy. But what is unacceptable …