Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to tackle health inequality caused by childhood poverty.

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of the Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity, and its commitment to raising the healthiest generation of children in history.

The Department is working closely with the Child Poverty Taskforce to develop and deliver an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, tackle the root causes, and give every child the best start in life. An important part of this will be alleviating the negative experience of living in poverty, through supporting families and enhancing public services.

The National Health Service also makes a central contribution to tackling inequalities, in access to services, patient experience, and healthcare outcomes. For example, the 2024/2025 NHS Priorities and Operational Planning Guidance makes explicit the requirement to address the inequalities of healthcare facing children and young people.