Recommendations for paediatricians and allied health professionals to address child health inequalities
| Action | Impact |
| Recognition, advocacy and campaigning | 1. Recognising the existence of systemic inequality is vital. Recognising cyclical nature of health inequalities leading to education inequality; and educational inequalities leading to health inequality in the long term. 2. From recognition, comes advocacy and campaigning. The medical establishment can form a powerful campaigning instrument, particularly in alliance with mass media. Participation with and forming campaign groups is an excellent organisational method. 3. Campaigning within the political arena is pivotal. Parliamentary select committees invite expert written and oral evidence, issues such as child poverty are a chief area of interest. Parliamentary groups, such as the ‘All Party Parliamentary Group on Poverty’ (APPG), are important to address the social determinants of health in children by focussing on understanding poverty and devising solution orientated policies. The APPG is particularly keen to draw on expertise outside of politics. |
| Research | 4. There is a relative paucity of research on the intersection of education and child health; given its indispensable importance. Paediatricians and allied health professionals should involve themselves with qualitative and quantitative research to better understand the mechanism of education inequalities on child health inequality. 5. Qualitative research is necessitated to better understand the effect of social stratifying processes, such as education, on the outcomes of paediatric clinical practice. While quantitative research can assess the potential effect of clinical interventions aimed to reduce health inequalities secondary to educational inequalities. |
| Quality Improvement and Infrastructure Development | 6. Furthermore, performing quality improvement projects to harness knowledge and data, and incorporate this into developing a local health services and healthcare delivery systems which mitigate inequalities. 7. The importance of collaboration among paediatricians, public health physicians and education leaders in codeveloping this infrastructure cannot be understated: these partnerships can yield a powerful force for equitable child health, addressing the social determinants of health such as education. |
| Medical Education | 8. The doctors and healthcare leaders of tomorrow should be taught the central role inequality, including inequalities within the education system, plays in mediating disease processes. Paediatricians should embed themselves within the medical education system and teach on the social determinants of health, thus equipping tomorrow’s doctors with a toolkit to navigate health inequalities. |