What about the children? - a question as often asked today as it was back in 1993
What about the children?- a question as often asked today as it was back in 1993, when the charity ‘What About The Children? was established to raise awareness of the emotional needs of all children under three, by increasing public understanding of infant brain development and the importance of secure infant/parent attachment for future physical and mental health.
Since 1993, knowledge and understanding about early infant brain development has grown; there is substantial research confirming that the first three years of life impact on future mental and physical health out of all proportion to the rest of childhood. Relationships, the quality of infant parent/carer attachment, appropriately responsive, consistent loving care and the value of play are all well documented, with many studies summarised on our website at The research dimension — What About The Children? There has been a plethora of studies, reports, consultations and questions in Parliament about early childhood which suggests that this period of development is now better understood. However, despite the increase in awareness and apparent appreciation about what makes for a ‘good childhood’, recent data on the health and wellbeing of babies and children in the UK show that there has been no improvement in the wellbeing of babies and children, but rather a significant decline in the quality of their health and wellbeing:
· fewer children are achieving a good level of development at age 2 to 2.5 years
· life expectancy at birth has stalled and inequalities have increased
· increased referrals to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
· more children living in poverty
So why is this? Many would argue it is because, compared to other countries, in the UK children’s emotional needs are absent from public consciousness. In countries that come towards the top of the list of wellbeing, for example, the Netherlands, childhood is more often recognised as a time of freedom and simple pleasures. In this country the emotional wellbeing, developmental needs and activities of childhood are not a priority for our policy-makers. This was very apparent in the political response to Covid, when the impact on children was not taken into account with the decision to close public outside play spaces, restrict partners being present during labour in maternity wards, the re-deployment of Health Visitors, the introduction of ‘virtual’ routine health and wellbeing checks on babies and toddlers, or the impact of ‘mask wearing’ on language development and social skills.
Despite the considerable increase in knowledge about early brain development and being better informed about what makes for a ‘good childhood’, with the prevention of harm and the promotion of emotional wellbeing, the keys to future physical and mental health, there continues to be a political ‘blind spot ’where the needs of babies and children are concerned. Consequently, there is a reluctance to develop and implement an integrated policy focussed on the emotional wellbeing and developmental needs of children.
Funding for public health, and services that support babies, children, their families and communities, have seen a huge decline. Health Visitor numbers are the lowest they have been for over a decade, the closure of Children’s Centres and nurseries has increased and the number of Child Minders is now so low that ‘home-based’ childcare is not ‘a choice’ available to parents with under-threes.
Based on research, effective intervention, which seeks to ‘close the gap’, to ‘level up’ and provide all children the ‘best start in life’, requires a multi-faceted approach. This needs to include support for parents from the antenatal stage, through the postnatal and early infant stage, good maternity services, sufficient midwives and high-quality universal Health Visiting service. It also requires a shift in fiscal policy with funded parental leave to include a ‘Home-care Allowance’ that enables home-based appropriately responsive loving care of the under-threes. As Prof. Sir Al Aynsley-Green, the first Children’s Commissioner for England, said, in his Goodman Memorial Lecture at What About The Children?’s 2017 conference, it requires a paradigm shift, abandoning funding and professional ‘bunkers and silos’, with provision across disciplines focussing on three things: needs, nurture and communities’.
To achieve real change and sustain improvement babies and children in the UK requires political leadership with the appointment of a Cabinet Minister, who is accountable and responsible, with knowledge and commitment to the wellbeing of the under-threes.
Child and Maternal Health - Data - OHID (phe.org.uk)
Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years On - The Health Foundation,
(http://www.fatherhoodinstitute.org/2023/why-we-need-six-weeks-well-paid-leave-for-new-dads/) .
Early Childhood - Royal Foundation
building-great-britons-report-conception-to-age-2-feb-2015.pdf (parentinfantfoundation.org.uk)
https://twitter.com/salhogg/status/1651159059926491136?s=20 infant mental health
‘Experience changes adult brains. In infants it organises actual brain systems.’ Perry B (2008) ‘The Traumatised Child: Healing Brain, Mind and Body’ Lecture London: The Centre for Child Mental Health June 14