The whole society approach: Making a giant leap on childhood health

Article

Health improved radically in the 20th century, but progress has since stalled.

The UK has the opportunity to make another ‘giant leap’ forward; to achieve this, the government will need to address growing levels of ‘health risk’ faced by children. Any progress would be good for health, business and the economy.

A recent increase in ambition, as shown by government's 'obesity strategy' announcement in July 2020, is good, but we must still go further and faster. In particular, we need to:

  • expand ambition from obesity to all health issues
  • tackle the link between childhood health and issues like marginalisation, poverty and deprivation
  • ensure we are using the full range of levers offered by a collective approach.

This report outlines what we call a ‘whole society’ approach, designed to make these gains.

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