Health Inequality in the UK

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More recently, The Health Foundation commissioned the Institute of Health Equity to study the progress of health inequalities in England. The Build Back Fairerstudy aims to shave off the levels of social, environmental and economic inequality in society, thus damaging collective health and wellbeing. Its true the COVID-19 pandemic brought mortality and rising health inequalities to the fore as a direct result of social and economic shortcomings. Written by Kieran McMullan

This study comes 10 years after the landmark review, Fair Society, Healthy Lives, also called The Marmot Review. Both studies mentioned above report on five policy objectives, with discouraging results. The objectives include: ensuring every child has the best possible start in life; giving people the tools to hone their workplace skills to lead a fulfilling life; ensuring a healthy standard of living is available for all; sourcing fair employment for everyone; and developing healthy and sustainable living solutions.

Findings show people can expect to spend more of their lives in poor health, with improvements in life expectancy slowing, particularly for the poorest 10% of women in this country. Further reporting finds the life expectancy gap between rich and poor in England widens, with the study showing the North East is worse for your health than living in London.

In particular, it is children who experience the most hardship when talking about issues of inequality and poverty. The latest UNICEF report, Worlds of Influence, on child wellbeing in developed countries puts the United Kingdom in 27th place out of 38. The report notes that Issues of poverty, exclusion and pollutionthreatens a childs mental wellbeing, physical health and the development of life skills.

Below the Innocenti Report Cardby UNICEF aims to understand and visualise what shapes child wellbeing in rich countries. The league table includes three dimensions: mental wellbeing, physical health and academic and social skills.

It is a sobering thought that Britain, as developed as one might conceive, exists with an above-average percentage of child poverty. According to UNICEF, the overall wellbeing of a child is determined by the world of the childand the world around the child. In other words the socio-economic and governmental influence, along with the society in which the child lives, significantly determines wellbeing.

Based on the graph, five countries occupy the top third in all three dimensions of mental wellbeing, physical health, and academic and social skills. These countries: Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Norway all finish higher than the UK. Three countries in the bottom third for each of the child wellbeing outcomes are Chile, Malta and the United States. Britain, alarmingly does worst in adolescent mental health (29th) and academic and social skills (26th), though faring more favourably on childrens physical health (19th).

Regarding mental wellbeing, statistics show fewer than two in three (64%) 15-year-olds in the UK report high life satisfaction, pinching narrowly ahead of Japan (62%) and Turkey (53%).

Other significant statistics lie in physical health, the UK has a low mortality rate between children 5-14, but its percentage of 5-19 year-olds who are overweight or obese (31%) is among the highest in the rich world. In japan that statistic floats from 14% to 42% in the United States. Perhaps even more sobering is over a quarter of 11-15-year-olds in England (27%), Wales (29%) and Scotland (32%) say they are too fat, while another 13-14% say they are too thin. Body image being an important indicator of adolescent life satisfaction.

Britains ranking in child and adolescent skills places in the middle of international ranking. Fewer than two in three (63%) 15-year-olds achieve a basic proficiency in reading and mathematics.

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The last 10 years are known as the so called lost decade. Children and families were faced with the realities of austerity measures, including the freezing of child benefit and working-age and tax credit values diminished, while state pensions were protected through the triple lock.

Rather bleakly, the Child Poverty Act has not been formally repealed according to the government, with targets abandoned in 2015.

More figures from Child Poverty Action Group shows 4.2 million children were living in poverty in the UK between 2018-2019. This equates to 30% of total children in the UK, or nine in a class of 30. Moreover, 44% of children living in lone-parent circumstances are in poverty. Children from black and minority ethnic groups are more likely to be in poverty, with 46% currently in poverty, compared with 26% of children in white British families, according to the Department for Work and Pensions. Weve already seen sweeping inequalities as a direct result of COVID-19, where current data demonstrates an imbalance in the mental health, income and life expectancy of BAME groups.

Unfortunately, work does not necessarily extricate children from poverty in the UK, 72% growing up in poverty live in a household where at least one person works. Findings also elucidate childcare and housing as the two biggest costs on family budgets.

New information from UNICEF reports that child poverty is expected to remain above pre-COVID levels for at least five years in high-income countries.Though only 2% of government funding across EU countries was purposefully allocated for families raising children during the pandemics first wave. The UNICEF report explores how the social and economic impact of the pandemic is likely to affect children; the governments austere response to the crisis; and what future public policies might look like in the betterment of child inequality.

The amount of financial relief allocated directly to children and families does not match the severe fallout of the pandemic, nor how long this crisis is expected to impact these countriessaid Gunilla Olsson, Director of the UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti.

 

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