World Children’s Day – How LHP is improving children’s lives across the Liverpool City Region
3 min read
Sadly, the children of the Liverpool City Region are facing poor health compared to other children in the UK, with more babies in Liverpool dying before their first birthdays. From high levels of deprivation to child poverty, there are many reasons why this could be the case.
Liverpool Health Partners is striving to improve the health outcomes for children and young people across the Liverpool City Region. On the week of World Children’s Day, we’re spreading awareness on the work being done to achieve this by Starting Well and our partners. Together, we’re aiming to make Liverpool a recognised UNICEF Child-Friendly city.
WHAT HEALTH INEQUALITIES ARE CHILDREN IN LIVERPOOL FACING?
Certain areas of Liverpool have a large number of inpatient admissions for mental health conditions, low immunisation rates, high levels of obesity, tooth decay, learning difficulties and a range of other health-related problems.
The COVID-19 pandemic will also affect the children of Liverpool by exacerbating existing health challenges and adding pressure and demand to the city’s local services.
The really terrifying fact is that more children in the city are dying before their first birthdays than they were 10 years ago. That’s something that’s really worrying and we must do something about it.
Dawn Lawson – CEO, Liverpool Health Partners
We know that child poverty has a myriad of adverse impacts on other aspects of child health that will have repercussions for decades to come. In the context of increasing health inequalities in England, policies that reduce poverty and social inequalities are likely to reduce the occurrence of infant mortality and that of many other adverse child health outcomes.
David Taylor Robinson – Professor of Public Health and Policy, University of Liverpool
HOW WE’RE HELPING WITH STARTING WELL
Every child deserves a positive start to life. Liverpool Health Partners’ Starting Well programme aims to help the babies being born across Cheshire and Merseyside to get the best start possible. Maternal health is a crucial point of focus for Starting Well as it increases the chances for a safe delivery and good birth weight.
Our mission includes promoting a healthy lifestyle, mitigating and preventing adversity, promoting positive mental health and tackling chronic inflammatory and infection-related disorders. Starting Well has involved all twelve of our partners and others, including the Liverpool City Council, in order to ensure an inclusive and collaborative approach to our work.
Our Starting Well programme – led by Professor Michael Beresford – is designed to group together the assets and expertise to see what we can do differently to give our children a better start.
Dawn Lawson – CEO, Liverpool Health Partners
WORLD CHILDREN’S DAY
Leading up to World Children’s Day on Friday the 20th of November, help us to spread awareness on the issues that children across Liverpool face and the efforts being made to give them happy, healthy lives.
DISCOVER HOW WE CAN SHAPE LIVERPOOL AS A CHILD-FRIENDLY CITY
Contact our Starting Well programme team to discuss how we can support you by emailing carianne.hunt@liverpool.ac.uk.
Join us and The University of Liverpool for Shaping Liverpool as a Child-Friendly City: Research Showcase on The 20th of November at 10:00. Researchers from across the University of Liverpool and from other universities will be presenting research that could inform efforts to transform Liverpool into a child-friendly city.
Follow Liverpool Health Partners on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
