New report warns UK Child Health is in decline: What does this mean for Local Authorities?

A major new report from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has painted a concerning picture of the health of children and young people across the UK. The State of Child Health 2026 report suggests that progress has stalled—or is moving backwards—across many key indicators of child health and wellbeing, with growing inequalities continuing to affect the most disadvantaged children.

Drawing together evidence from across the UK, the report calls for children's health to become a national priority, with greater investment in prevention, earlier support and stronger cross-government action to improve outcomes.

Key messages from the report

The report highlights several significant concerns.

• Health inequalities remain stark. Children growing up in poverty continue to experience poorer physical and mental health outcomes, reinforcing the close relationship between deprivation and long-term wellbeing.
• Mental health needs are increasing. More children and young people are experiencing poor mental health, while demand for specialist support continues to outstrip capacity.
• Vaccination uptake has fallen. Declining immunisation rates have increased concerns about the return of preventable infectious diseases.
• Childhood obesity remains a major challenge. The report highlights continuing concerns around healthy weight, nutrition and access to opportunities for physical activity.
• Oral health continues to affect too many children. Tooth decay remains one of the leading causes of hospital admissions for young children, despite being largely preventable.

Across all of these issues, the report emphasises that improving children's health requires action well beyond the NHS. Housing, education, family income, community support, early years services and access to timely help all play a critical role in determining children's life chances.

Why this matters for local authorities

The report reinforces what many councils are already seeing in practice: increasing complexity of need, growing demand for services and widening inequalities.

It also highlights the importance of whole-system working. Improving children's health cannot be achieved by one organisation acting alone. Local authorities, Integrated Care Boards, schools, early years providers, voluntary organisations and community partners all have an important contribution to make.

As councils continue to implement the Families First reforms, the report provides further evidence of the value of:

• investing in prevention and early intervention;
• strengthening Family Help services;
• improving partnership working across health, education and children's services;
• making better use of data to identify need earlier;
• supporting parents and carers from pregnancy through the early years; and
• reducing inequalities before children reach school age.

The importance of Good Level of Development (GLD)

One of the strongest messages from Interface's recent research for the Local Government Association on Achieving the Best Start in Life was the importance of helping more children achieve a strong Good Level of Development (GLD) by the end of the Reception Year.

GLD is far more than an education measure. It reflects children's communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development, literacy and mathematics—providing one of the clearest indicators that children are ready to learn, thrive and achieve positive outcomes throughout childhood.

Our research found that improving GLD depends on coordinated action across the whole system. Strong leadership, effective partnership working, high-quality early years provision, health visiting, Family Hubs, timely family support and better data sharing all contribute to giving children the best possible start in life.

The findings of the RCPCH report reinforce this message. Improving children's health and narrowing inequalities begins long before children enter school and requires sustained collaboration across agencies.

Questions for local partnerships

The report provides an opportunity for local partnerships to reflect on some important questions:

• What do our local child health and Good Level of Development data tell us?
• Are children and families receiving help early enough?
• How effectively are health, education and children's services working together?
• What more can we do to reduce inequalities before children start school?
• How can Family Help and Family Hubs strengthen prevention and improve outcomes?

At Interface, we continue to support local authorities with Best Start in Life, Family Help implementation, service redesign, leadership development and whole-system reviews. As this latest report demonstrates, improving children's health requires coordinated, evidence-informed action across the entire partnership—and the earliest years remain one of the greatest opportunities to make a lasting difference.

Read to summary of the full report here