Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gavin Newlands and Jackie Doyle-Price

Tuesday 6th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

6. What plans his Department has to improve children’s health.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Jackie Doyle-Price)]

This Government want to see all children and young people get the best start in life. We are implementing a wide range of policies to improve child health, including the most ambitious childhood obesity plan in the world, transformation of children’s mental health and maternity services, improving immunisation rates and tackling child sexual abuse.

[Gavin Newlands]

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health recently praised NHS Scotland’s innovations to improve children’s health. The Scottish initiative Childsmile, which is now 10 years old, has greatly improved children’s dental health, reducing fillings by 24% and cutting annual dental treatment by £5 million. It is good that the UK Government have finally set up trial sites, but with multiple dental extractions under general anaesthetic up by 11%, why is this initiative not being rolled out to all children in England?

[Jackie Doyle-Price]

The hon. Gentleman is right to highlight that, and we are always keen to respond to any representations made on this very important issue. We are also very keen to learn from the other nations about this area, because it is clear that the more we can do with early intervention in childhood, the better we protect people’s long-term health. I will look more specifically into that.