Torjensen highlights the UK government’s decision to abolish its current target for assessing child poverty, a measure of material disadvantage that is based on measures of relative and absolute income [1]. The downgrading of the existing target comes before a big cut in tax credits, expected this week, which is likely to increase child poverty. Alongside ditching the Child Poverty Act targets, the plan is to replace the current measures with a range of untested outcomes that conflate the consequences of child poverty, with the cause – a lack of material resources.
Why should clinicians be concerned? Health outcomes for children and young people in the UK are poor, and a key reason for this is considered to be our high relative child poverty rates [2]. Children growing up in income poverty experience a wide range of adverse child health and developmental outcomes, and are more likely to develop chronic conditions of childhood [3]. For example, children living in poverty in the UK are more likely to: die in the first year of life (figure 1); be born small; be bottle fed; breathe second-hand smoke; become overweight; perform poorly at school; and die in an accident [4].
Obfuscating the targets will not get rid of these problems. In absolute terms child poverty has already increased in recent years [5], and there is an urgent need for doctors to advocate for action to address the shameful levels of child poverty in the UK.
Figure 1. Infant mortality rate by relative child poverty (<60% median) for upper tier local authorities in England.
References
1. Torjesen I. Government abolishes child poverty target. BMJ 2015;351:h3643 doi: 10.1136/bmj.h3643[published Online First: Epub Date]|.
2. Sidebotham P, Fraser J, Covington T, et al. Understanding why children die in high-income countries. Lancet 2014;384(9946):915-27 doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60581-X[published Online First: Epub Date]|.
3. Pillas D, Marmot M, Naicker K, Goldblatt P, Morrison J, Pikhart H. Social inequalities in early childhood health and development: a European-wide systematic review. Pediatric research 2014;76(5):418-24 doi: 10.1038/pr.2014.122[published Online First: Epub Date]|.
4. Roberts H. What works in reducing inequalities in child health: The Policy Press, 2012.
5. Taylor-Robinson D, Whitehead M, Barr B. Great leap backwards. BMJ 2014;349:g7350 doi: 10.1136/bmj.g7350[published Online First: Epub Date]|.
Competing interests:
No competing interests
06 July 2015
David C Taylor-Robinson
Clinical Senior Lecturer in Public Health, Honorary Consultant in Public Health
Sophie Wickham, Caoimhe McKenna, Rosie Kyeremateng, Samuel Massion, Ben Barr
Department of Public Health and Policy, University of Liverpool; Alder Hey Children's Hospital; Population, Policy and Practice, ICH, UCL
Department of Public Health and Policy, University of Liverpool, Whelan Building, L96 3GB
Rapid Response:
Re: Government abolishes child poverty target
Dear Dr Godlee,
Torjensen highlights the UK government’s decision to abolish its current target for assessing child poverty, a measure of material disadvantage that is based on measures of relative and absolute income [1]. The downgrading of the existing target comes before a big cut in tax credits, expected this week, which is likely to increase child poverty. Alongside ditching the Child Poverty Act targets, the plan is to replace the current measures with a range of untested outcomes that conflate the consequences of child poverty, with the cause – a lack of material resources.
Why should clinicians be concerned? Health outcomes for children and young people in the UK are poor, and a key reason for this is considered to be our high relative child poverty rates [2]. Children growing up in income poverty experience a wide range of adverse child health and developmental outcomes, and are more likely to develop chronic conditions of childhood [3]. For example, children living in poverty in the UK are more likely to: die in the first year of life (figure 1); be born small; be bottle fed; breathe second-hand smoke; become overweight; perform poorly at school; and die in an accident [4].
Obfuscating the targets will not get rid of these problems. In absolute terms child poverty has already increased in recent years [5], and there is an urgent need for doctors to advocate for action to address the shameful levels of child poverty in the UK.
Figure 1. Infant mortality rate by relative child poverty (<60% median) for upper tier local authorities in England.
References
1. Torjesen I. Government abolishes child poverty target. BMJ 2015;351:h3643 doi: 10.1136/bmj.h3643[published Online First: Epub Date]|.
2. Sidebotham P, Fraser J, Covington T, et al. Understanding why children die in high-income countries. Lancet 2014;384(9946):915-27 doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60581-X[published Online First: Epub Date]|.
3. Pillas D, Marmot M, Naicker K, Goldblatt P, Morrison J, Pikhart H. Social inequalities in early childhood health and development: a European-wide systematic review. Pediatric research 2014;76(5):418-24 doi: 10.1038/pr.2014.122[published Online First: Epub Date]|.
4. Roberts H. What works in reducing inequalities in child health: The Policy Press, 2012.
5. Taylor-Robinson D, Whitehead M, Barr B. Great leap backwards. BMJ 2014;349:g7350 doi: 10.1136/bmj.g7350[published Online First: Epub Date]|.
Competing interests: No competing interests