We have long known that Scotland’s citizens are among the unhealthiest in the western world, and that inequality plays a key role in the early death statistics we’ve become so accustomed to. Despite this, it is still shocking to discover that our children and young people also suffer some of the worst physical and mental health in Western Europe.
The letter in today’s Herald from 12 of the country’s leading experts in child health and wellbeing highlighting the scale of the challenge facing the country makes for grim reading. More than a quarter of all our youngsters are overweight or obese, while around 210,000 live in poverty. Poverty and inequality, say the experts, play a pivotal role in some 400 child deaths each year.
Most of us would agree that such numbers are completely unacceptable in the 21st century in one of the wealthiest economies Europe. The question of what to do about it, however, is more complicated.
As both Labour and Conservative prime ministers have discovered over years, poverty and inequality are the hardest of political and societal nuts to crack. The reasons for this are complex and uncomfortable, and those in power find it difficult to be honest with the electorate. The structure of the global economy hinders the poor, while making any impact on to health, education, housing and childcare is massively expensive. Ongoing austerity makes finding solutions even trickier, of course.
So, do we just accept that so many of our children will have their fate set at birth, and will live unhealthier, unhappier lives than their more fortunate peers? Of course not. Especially since money is not the only issue.
As the experts make clear, we also need to work smarter. Their letter calls for politicians to put child health at the centre of policy-making across Government departments, for significant policy interventions from pregnancy through to adolescence. Our politicians should take heed of such demands.
The Scottish Government often blames Westminster for the Scotland’s woes. Such rhetoric can come across as empty, since many of the policy areas which affect inequality – including, crucially, health and education - are under the Scottish Parliament’s remit. It can and must do better than this.
Earlier this year, the First Minister commendably asked voters to judge her personally on her record in reducing the attainment gap in schools between the wealthiest and poorest pupils. She also appointed an independent poverty advisor to scrutinise Scottish Government policy with regards to inequality.
This is a good start, but it is just that – a beginning. Unless progress is made, our health and social work services will continue to spend hundreds of millions of pounds every year on treating the side-effects of poverty. And large proportions of our young people will continue to be held back from their first day of life by the circumstances of their parents. They will grow up unhealthier and unhappier than their peers. They will earn less and die younger.
Our children deserve better; our politicians must do better.
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