HL Deb 17 June 2002 vol 636 cc483-6

2.43 p.m.

Baroness Massey of Darwen

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Which of their policies contribute to the health of children and young people.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, the Department of Health's Children's Taskforce is overseeing the development of a national service framework for children. That will set standards and a programme for action to improve children's health and social care services.

Baroness Massey of Darwen

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. I recognise that this is a wide-ranging subject covering many departments. Can he be more precise and outline the proposed timetable for the completion, development and publication of the national service framework for children?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, there are six strands to the work of the national service framework, covering acute care, maternity, mental health, children in special circumstances, disabled children and the healthy child and young person. The first strand of that work is around acute care. We aim to publish standards later in 2002. We shall follow those up with further standards. The acute standard, which is really being produced in response to the Bristol Royal Infirmary inquiry report, will be very important in forming the future development of acute services for children in the NHS.

Baroness Walmsley

My Lords, is the Minister aware that new diagnoses of HIV infection across the whole age range and new cases of gonorrhoea among teenagers have doubled over the last six years for which information is available; and that the incidence of chlamydia in teenage girls doubled, in only one year, between 1999 and 2000? Can the Minister explain what the Government are doing to address the ignorance of young people about sexually transmitted diseases which present a serious threat to their health? And why do so many teenagers think that chlamydia is a Brazilian footballer?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

Well, my Lords, I am not sure about Brazil. As regards the question that the noble Baroness raises, she is absolutely right to point out that there have been disturbing rises in sexually transmitted infections. No one can be complacent about that trend. We are committed to reversing it. We are developing, as the noble Baroness will know, a national sexual health and HIV strategy. Later this year we shall launch a new national campaign to raise awareness which we are very hopeful will have an impact on this disturbing trend.

Baroness Gardner of Parkes

My Lords, I want to ask the Minister about the other end of the spectrum—children's teeth and oral health. Can he tell me whether there has been any progress? Even in the days when school inspections were routine, not all children had an inspection for dental health. Can he tell us what proportion of children have an assessment of dental health?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, I do not have the figures with me. I shall certainly find them and let the noble Baroness know. Dental health is very important for young people. As the noble Baroness will know, in the dental strategy that we published a year ago, some emphasis was given to the role of the community dental service in relation to young people. We are sponsoring preventive programmes. We encourage local primary care trusts to take an active role in engaging with young people. We are very keen to involve the dentistry profession in those programmes.

The Earl of Listowel

My Lords—

Lord Campbell of Alloway

My Lords—

Baroness Gale

My Lords—

The Lord Privy Seal (Lord Williams of Mostyn)

My Lords, perhaps we could hear from the Cross Benches first and then from the Labour Benches.

The Earl of Listowel

My Lords, bearing in mind that 98 per cent of looked-after children in residential care have mental health problems, 66 per cent of looked-after children in foster care have mental health problems, according to the children's mental health charity Young Minds, and 90 per cent of young offenders have mental health problems, according to the Office for National Statistics, can the Minister confirm that there is a serious shortfall in the number of child and adolescent psychiatrist consultants? Can he say what is being done to address that, particularly with regard to the training of medical students?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, for many years the health service has had a problem with recruitment of psychiatrists and consultants across the whole mental health field. Partly as a result of the national service framework in relation to mental health and the work of the department as regards medical workforce planning for the future, we are tackling the issues, one of which is to attract young medical students into this particularly important field. I am not sure whether we agree entirely with all the figures quoted by the noble Lord, but there is no doubt that if we take looked-alter children as an example, many suffer from mental health problems. While it is absolutely right that the NHS needs to improve those services and is beginning to do so, we also need to improve our efforts generally for looked-after children. I think that the fairly recent Act dealing with looked-after children is one of the foundations for improving the support given to such children.

Baroness Gale

My Lords, can my noble friend say what further measures the Government will take to prevent children under the age of 16 starting to smoke? Further, can he say whether there are any plans to strengthen the law to ensure that sales of cigarettes to children under the age of 16 are more successfully prevented?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, this is a worrying problem. The latest figure for regular smokers between the ages of 11 to 15 is 10 per cent. That shows an improvement on the figures in 1996 of 13 per cent and in 1998 of 11 per cent. We are of course taking measures to tackle young people smoking. The passing of the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill through both Houses will be very helpful in banning advertising. We are taking tough enforcement measures on under-age sales. On 13th September 2000 we launched an enforcement protocol with local authorities. We also support proof-of-age card schemes which protect shopkeepers and children alike.

Earl Howe

My Lords, did the Minister see the rather shocking statement made by David Wood, professor of cardiovascular medicine at Charing Cross Hospital? He said that, by the age of 20, atherosclerosis may be present in as many as one in three young people. Sir Alexander Macara, chairman of the National Heart Foundation, said that, public health initiatives aimed at the young lack the priority and resources given to adult interventions". What are the Minister and the Government doing about public health initiatives aimed at young people so as to achieve a less piecemeal approach to the various problems that beset the young?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, a preventive programme for children, bearing in mind all the areas that it would have to cover, would be extremely wide. However, we have major cross-government programmes of work to ensure that, for instance, children have access to a healthy diet and, crucial to the noble Earl's point, opportunities to be physically active. That includes, for instance, the national school fruit scheme which encourages primary school children to eat one piece of fruit per day. We also have a Food in Schools programme.

We need to give more emphasis to encouraging young people to take exercise. We know that 10 per cent of children are obese at six years of age, rising to 17 per cent at 16. We must tackle that problem. Hence the importance of the funding for schools to encourage sport and physical activity. Local NHS trusts should engage in partnerships with schools to encourage children towards a more healthy and, if I may say so, a more enjoyable lifestyle.