'End child poverty' campaigners to stage rally in Trafalgar Square » Health » 24dash.com

A children's charity is to lead a rally in Trafalgar Square to end child poverty next month following a report published today.

The report from Campaign to End Child Poverty warns that ill health is one of the worst effects that poverty can have on a child's life in the UK. It says the risk of sudden infant death is 10 times greater for children from deprived areas than for children from better-off families.

The Health Consequences of Poverty for Children report highlighted concerns that a growing wealth divide in the UK was undermining work done to bring down the number of children living in poverty.

Children from disadvantaged families are more likely to be born underweight and weigh, on average, 200g less than babies in the richest families. Equally disturbing, the report says that children living in poorer families are also two-and-a-half times as likely to suffer chronic illness as toddlers and twice as likely to have cerebral palsy.

The report highlights the impact of poverty on foetal development, early infancy, health throughout childhood and into adult life, in what is known as the poverty health cycle.

The Campaign to End Child Poverty, a coalition of more than 130 organisations working to eradicate child poverty in the UK, believes that social inequality harms the life chances of children as well as being linked to a range of health, development and educational problems. It is now campaigning for an extra £3 billion in benefits and tax credits.

Hilary Fisher, director for the Campaign to End Child Poverty, said: "This evidence has profound implications for public policy.

"The facts prove that effective action to end child poverty would make a vital long-term contribution to improving the health of our nation and prevent avoidable incidences of physical and mental ill health.

"The Government made a bold promise to halve child poverty by 2010 and this now requires bold action."

Professor Nick Spencer, one of the report authors and professor of Child Health at the University of Warwick, said: "Acute illnesses are more likely to affect poor children and they are more likely to experience hospital admission which, in turn, is placing an unnecessary amount of strain on health services.

"If poverty were an infection then we would be in the midst of a full-scale epidemic with all the attendant public health measures, including vaccination."

The Keep the Promise event, organised by the Campaign to End Child Poverty, will be held on October 4 and will see thousands of health and social care professionals uniting to put pressure on the Government to keep its promise to halve child poverty by 2010.