Children’s Health

Ashley Dalton Excerpts

Thursday 10th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) on securing this debate. He is a tireless advocate for children across the country. I also pay tribute to his campaigning on social prescribing before he came to this place, because it is now a key part of our 10-year plan for health.

This issue is dear to my heart. One of the reasons I stood for Parliament is that nearly a quarter of the kids in Skelmersdale, the biggest town in my constituency, live in poverty. As many colleagues have pointed out, the state of children’s health is a national scandal. As my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud said, and as was referred to by the shadow Minister, this is a complex issue that straddles a variety of areas. It is about active travel—and I am delighted that the Minister responsible for active travel, my hon. Friend the Member for Wakefield and Rothwell (Simon Lightwood), is on the Front Bench with me today—as well as air pollution and access to green spaces.

My hon. Friend the Member for Warrington South (Sarah Hall) highlighted links between children’s health, education and poverty. The hon. Member for Mid Dunbartonshire (Susan Murray) made a contribution, and her expertise in diet and nutrition was really insightful. My hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Dame Siobhain McDonagh) spoke about children with life-limiting illnesses and end-of-life care and palliative care for children.

My hon. Friend the Member for Lowestoft (Jess Asato) talked about junk food advertising and dentistry. My hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Tom Hayes) talked about family hubs and Best Start, which we have launched this week, children’s health and social care infrastructure and the third sector. I was really pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford South (Jas Athwal) raised the issue of fast food outlets and junk food advertising, which I will cover in my response.

My hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield (Steve Yemm) talked about children, young people and cancer, and mentioned the Teenage Cancer Trust, which I met recently along with my hon. Friend, and I was delighted to do so. My hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Leigh Ingham) spoke about how important play and sport are. We are working across Departments in our mission-led Government to deliver the healthiest generation ever. I can confirm that the NHS works with the Starlight charity to support the provision of play facilities within hospitals.

Over 2 million children are not active, and we need to change that. The Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Education and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport are committed to investing in school sport and have confirmed funding for next year’s primary PE and sport premium. We are working across Government to develop new school sports partnerships, and a national network model was announced by the Prime Minister in June.

Lord Darzi’s review set out in black and white how badly the previous Government let our children down. Tooth decay is the most common reason why children aged five to nine are admitted to hospital. Referrals for mental health services for children and young people have tripled since 2016, and waiting lists for health services have grown faster for children than for adults. That must change, and it will change.

This Government are committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever, and work to deliver this ambition has already begun. One of the biggest things we can do to improve a child’s life chances is safeguard their mental health. That is why by the end of this Parliament we will put a mental health support team in every school in England to break the vicious cycle of poor mental health, low attendance and bad behaviour.

My right hon. Friend the Education Secretary is rolling out free breakfast clubs so that kids start school with hungry minds not hungry bellies. To combat tooth decay, we have invested £11 million in supervised tooth brushing for three to five-year-olds in our most deprived communities. We are going further than ever before to tackle long waiting times for children through our elective reform plan. We have already delivered more than 4 million appointments, which is double what we promised in our manifesto.

On children’s social care and neglect, which the shadow Minister talked about, we are committed to rebalancing the system towards earlier intervention. That is why the spending review committed to reforming children’s social care, including through a new £555 million transformation fund.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden for raising the important matter of funding for children’s hospices, and I agree with her about their crucial role. As she said, we have committed £26 million for children’s hospices this year, alongside £100 million of capital funding. Future funding will be announced in due course.

My hon. Friend the Member for Stroud mentioned that it is crucial to involve young people in our conversations and policy development. I spoke recently at a Children’s Hospital Alliance event and a Children’s Commissioner roundtable, where I listened directly to the views and voices of children and young people to make sure that they fed into the 10-year health plan. Our neighbourhood health offer builds on that feedback, and we have re-established the children and young people’s cancer taskforce and insisted that children and young people are around that table.

Last week we published our 10-year plan for health, which sets out how we will fix our broken NHS and make it fit for today’s children and for future generations. We on the Government Benches will not rest until every working person receives the same kind of healthcare that the wealthy expect.

The three shifts that underpin our plan are the building blocks to ensure that children get the best start in life. The first is from treatment to prevention. We know that a baby’s first 1,001 days, from conception to the age of two, set the foundations for later years, so we are establishing Best Start family hubs, building on the legacy of Sure Start, which was a lifeline for working families under the last Labour Government. Earlier this week we published the “Giving every child the best start in life” strategy, and we will provide funding to every local authority in England for Best Start family hubs, because no parent should have to face the challenges of parenthood alone.

We are also taking firm action on obesity, which many Members raised today, and which affects nearly one in five children leaving primary school. Our action includes restricting junk food advertising, banning the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks, updating school food standards, strengthening the soft drinks industry levy, introducing healthy food sales reporting and, ultimately, using that reporting to set new sales targets.

The Government have regulations in place to set nutritional, compositional and labelling standards for commercial baby food, and we continue to challenge the industry to take further action, providing advice and guidance for parents. Enforcement of nutrition legislation is the responsibility of local authorities. Good nutrition in the early years is vital. We recognise that there are opportunities to support parents and make the healthier choice easier by encouraging businesses to improve baby foods. I will set out our plans on that soon.

We are also determined to fix the special educational needs and disability system and restore the trust of parents by ensuring that schools have the tools to better identify and support children before issues escalate to crisis point. This autumn, the Government will bring forward a schools White Paper, which will detail our approach to SEND reform, ensuring joined-up support for children and young people.

On the shift from analogue to digital, going beyond the paper red book, the “My Children” function on the NHS app will become the digital companion for parents to access their child’s health information throughout their childhood. Over time, parents will be able to record their children’s habits and developmental milestones, and use artificial intelligence to access help and advice when needed.

On the third shift, from hospital to community, we will roll out neighbourhood health centres in every community, building care closer to where children live, learn and play. That includes multidisciplinary teams made up of GPs, nurses, health visitors, paediatricians, mental health, social workers and the third sector, providing joined-up preventive care and supporting children with complex and chronic needs.

Before I wrap up, I want to say a few words on inequalities. Building a fair Britain is central to our 10-year plan. As the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care said in Blackpool last month, we will review how health need is reflected in funding for general practice, with a sharp focus on money following need. Child poverty is a stain on our country. We are determined to fix this, which is why we are rolling out free school meals to all children in households on universal credit. From April 2026, we will be increasing the value of Healthy Start payments by 10%. I am also a member of the child poverty taskforce, and the strategy on this will be published later this year.

I again thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud for raising this vital topic and all other colleagues for speaking today. When he launched our manifesto, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister promised to restore

“The bond that reaches through the generations and says—this country will be better for your children.”

That is what we are doing with our 10-year plan. I look forward to working with my hon. Friend and all other colleagues to get this done.