The UK has been accused of employing “inadequate” provision for child rights protection after it fell dramatically in global rankings for child rights within a year, from 11th to 156th. According to the 2017 KidsRights Index it now ranks among the bottom 10 global performers in the arena of improving rights of the child, after it achieved the lowest-possible score across all six available indicators in the domain of Child Rights Environment (CRE). In UNICEF’s Report Card 13 ‘Fairness for Children’, the UK had the largest difference among all the countries studied in the levels of healthy eating (consumption of fruit and vegetables) between children from low and high socio-economic status. This was accompanied by one of the largest gaps in the levels of physical activity. Inequality in education was also flagged up, with the UK being ranked 25th out of the 37 countries – behind Slovenia, Poland and Romania.

Flourishing is our Birthright

The Flourish Model
​Nordic v Preschool approach

Children in the modern world are being exposed to a set of environmental pressures that are unique in human history – and this seems to be having a profoundly negative impact on their health and wellbeing.

Flourishing is our birthright – young children are citizens with biological and developmental rights and every child deserves to be provided with an environment that nurtures his or her unique skills, capacities and potential.

The Early Years is the single most important period of our lifespan – our early environments and experiences profoundly influence brain development and the conditions and later mindsets necessary for healthy physical, mental and emotional growth.
 
The Early Years starts at conception – the health and wellbeing of mothers is essential for the healthy development of the child. Stressed-out and unhappy mothers can create negative epigenetic markers that predispose their children to weaker developmental outcomes.

Relational wellbeing lies at the core of human thriving – we are social beings and the love, affection and consistency of our early caregivers is essential for our development.

Those seeking to reduce deficits and strengthen the economy should make significant investment in early childhood and relational wellbeing - child abuse and neglect is the single most costly cause of mental illness, the single most common cause of drug and alcohol abuse, and a significant contributor to leading causes of death such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, and suicide.

Childhood is increasingly being medicalised – children as young as three are now regularly being prescribed medication to manage their behaviour

Early Years Policymaking should be based upon the new Science of Human Learning and Development – given what we now know it is inexcusable for any government to implement policies that ignore global evidence, are potentially damaging to human flourishing and threaten the health, wealth and sustainability of their populations

We need to protect and nurture the spirit of the child – children are naturally curious, playful, joyful and full of love. We need to ensure that adult-led systems recognise the whole child by nurturing the spirit, inspiring the mind and engaging the heart.
 

Child Health and Wellbeing in the UK 

• In its first wellbeing study involving 540,000 15-year-olds across 72 countries, the UK ranked 38th out of the 48 countries that took part in the happiness study. Pupils in the UK were among the most likely to be bullied, and spent the most time on the internet. They were also more anxious about testing than many of their international peers. (OECD, 2017).
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• One in four girls in the UK currently have depression by the time they are 14 (NCB and University of Liverpool, 2017)
  
  
• The UK has the highest rate of child obesity in Western Europe, which is estimated to cost the NHS about £4.2bn a year (Public Health England, 2009). One in three is now clinically obese (Young Minds, 2017).
  
  
• Less than 1 in 10 children regularly play in wild spaces now, compared to 5 out of 10 a generation ago (Natural Childhood Report, 2011).
  
  
• Only 21% of children today play out in their streets and local neighbourhoods, compared to 71% of adults who were able to do so as children (Playday Poll, 2007).
  
  
• Play England’s 2007 research found that 51 per cent of children have been told by adults to stop playing in the streets or area near their home. 
  
  
• British children spend disproportionately large amounts of time in front of screens, compared to their counterparts in other Western European countries. ‘Higher levels of TV viewing are having a negative effect on children’s well-being, including lower self-worth, lower self-esteem and lower levels of self-reported happiness.’ (Children’s Society, 2013).
  
  
• By the time the average child is eighteen years old, they will have witnessed 200,000 acts of violence and 16,000 murders (Facts and Figures About Our TV Habit. TV Turnoff Network).
  
  
• One in ten children in the UK has a diagnosed mental health disorder (Young Minds, 2017).
  
  
• One in twelve adolescents deliberately self-harms (Young Minds, 2017).
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• 28% of children in the UK currently live in poverty (Child Poverty Action Group 2017).
  
  
• Approximately 25% of children live in a one-parent family, and 47% of children living in one-parent families currently experience relative poverty (Gingerbread, 2017).
  
  
• Nearly 80,000 children and young people currently suffer from severe depression, including 8,000 children aged under 10 years old (Young Minds, 2017)
  
  
• Admissions for psychiatric conditions, eating disorders and self-harm among young people are soaring (Sunday Times Mental Health Campaign, 2017.

 

Save the Children, 2017

MoreLife, 2017