Policy paper

Achieving Equity and Excellence for Children

Achieving Equity and Excellence for Children forms part of the process of engagement with the NHS White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS. It draws together information from the White Paper and the associated consultation documents to create a vision of how the proposed new arrangements for the NHS could improve services for children and young people.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

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Details

Achieving Equity and Excellence for Children begins an ongoing dialogue on how to ensure high-quality services for children and young people.

In the past, the NHS was not always set up to put the needs of patients and the public first. Too often patients were expected to fit around services rather than services around patients. Nowhere was this more the case than for children, young people and their families, as Sir Ian Kennedy has shown in his report Getting it right for children and young people: Overcoming cultural barriers in the NHS so as to meet their needs.

Children and young people are mostly healthy and therefore, thankfully, will never feature highly where decisions are taken based on the burden of disease or on cases of premature death. But illness and injury can have a long-lasting impact on a young person’s life and ultimately on their life chances and therefore on our economy and society. In turn this can impact significantly on their family’s life.

Achieving Equity and Excellence for Children forms part of the process of engagement with the NHS White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS. It draws together information from the White Paper and the associated consultation documents to create a vision of how the proposed new arrangements for the NHS could improve services for children and young people. We hope that this will stimulate thinking in this important area. Any views on the implementation of the NHS White Paper or the previously published consultation documents should be sent, by 5 October 2010 in the case of the White Paper or by 11 October in the case of the supporting consultations, to the NHS White Paper team by email at the link below or by post to: 

White Paper Team
Room 601
Department of Health
79 Whitehall
London SW1A 2NS

As we develop our vision for the NHS, we will continue to welcome views on how to achieve the best outcomes for children, young people and families.

Updates to this page

Published 16 September 2010

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