Disproportionate disadvantage of the young: Britain, the Unicef report on child well-being, and political choices

摘要

Unicef Innocenti's latest comparative overview of child well-being in rich countries looks like good news for the UK. We have risen up the ranks, now reaching 16th place among 29 countries. This mediocre position is worthy of celebration because Unicef's previous report in 2007 was shocking: our overall position was lowest among 21 rich countries. We shared this lamentable place with the USA. Indeed many newspaper headlines reflected the recent progress, albeit with one or two examples of scepticism about the notion of measuring child well-being. Children's health policy and systems research has not yet proven its worth to all in the health community, which is trained to believe that the randomised controlled trial is the gold standard of evidence. So it is good to see arguments around this new and important research field, still defining new methods and standards, reaching beyond medical journals to the mainstream press.