Government calls for local authority action on children’s health

Local councils are being called on by the government to take further steps to ensure they are doing all they can to improve children's health in their area.

Children's health minister Dr Dan Poulter has joined with other experts to ask authorities to sign up to a government pledge to deliver better health outcomes for children and young people.

Councils are also being asked to publish and share good examples of what they are doing for children's health in their own areas, in order to inform best practice guidelines.

The overall aim of this initiative is to reduce and eventually eliminate the "unacceptable" variations in children and young people's health outcomes seen across the country, while pushing children's health to the top of the agenda.

Health minister Dr Dan Poulter said: "There is a lot of good work going on out there, but I want all local areas to be as good as the best."

Thus far, the government pledges have been supported by organisations such as the Care Quality Commission, the NHS Confederation, the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of GPs and many more.