• Child Health Services
• Obesity
• Child Welfare
• Infant Welfare

The National Health Service (NHS) is in crisis: insufficient funding, staff shortages and an ageing population are pushing it to the brink. While waiting lists stay alarmingly high, of particular concern is the neglected status of child health. Unfortunately, both major parties insist that the focus should be on reform of the NHS rather than investment and cite severe spending constraints under self-imposed fiscal rules regarded as sacrosanct. Yet, this is wrong on both counts: the NHS should be seen as an investment not a cost; and current fiscal rules take no account of the immense power of the state to find the money it needs when the political will is there.

Taking the first point: children are the future of our society and money spent on interventions at this stage of the life course brings the greatest dividends. International research shows that for every $1 spent on early childhood development interventions, the return on investment can be as high as $13.1 With regard to the NHS as a whole, separate research also shows a clear economic benefit: for each £1 spent per head on the NHS, there is a corresponding return on investment of £4.2

It is also important to look at the cost of not investing. The high likelihood of a pandemic from antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is predicted to take 11% off gross domestic product (GDP)—double that of the 2007–2009 financial crash.3 Prudent preparation now is an imperative, not a policy option.

Taking the second point, such investment is clearly affordable if we wean ourselves away from the notion of money as a scarce resource and approach this issue …