The King’s Fund has welcomed the Health Secretary’s Labour conference focus on prevention, children’s health and care-workforce steps — but warned that a promised cross-government health mission is still missing and immigration changes could worsen care vacancies.
Responding to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s conference speech, Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King’s Fund, said expanding the Healthy Babies programme was a “welcome signal” of a broader prevention agenda and a priority on children and families.
Babies, family hubs and maternity
Woolnough said children’s health remains in a poor state, with high levels of childhood obesity, dental decay and mental ill health. Alongside family-hub expansion, she argued government must also tackle falling school-nurse and health-visitor numbers and cuts to the public health grant if it wants lasting gains for young people.
She also welcomed the spotlight on maternity, including new maternity standards and the appointment of a maternity and neonatal commissioner, saying lasting improvements for women, babies and families at that critical point of life would “pay dividends for a lifetime.”
‘Broader health mission still missing’
“But the government can and should go further. It came to power promising a truly cross-government mission to create good health in the broadest sense, recognising that poverty, housing, education, employment, and family support all play a part in good health. The broader health mission is still missing in action. Now is the time for departments across government to work together to tackle the root causes of poor health, taking bold action on the wider determinants of health and standing up to the vested interests that profit from ill health.”
Woolnough backed the Secretary of State’s focus on violence against women and girls, noting that one in three women and girls in the UK experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime and that most domestic-abuse survivors present to the NHS at least once — making health services a critical point of support.
National Care Service workforce steps — and a visa warning
Following the Prime Minister’s National Care Service ambition, she said it was “heartening” to see concrete workforce steps: thousands more academy places, a fair pay agreement across every employer, a national pension scheme for care workers, and a new champion for unpaid carers — though the powers of that role will matter.
Those measures will take time to land, she cautioned. Proposed immigration changes to health and care visas risk raising vacancy rates in the short term; The King’s Fund hopes any rollback on those changes is taken up.
