Children with poor mental health less likely to work as adults
One in five children in England are currently having a probable mental health issue, while Government figures suggest the number of workers aged 16 to 34 who say mental ill health limits the work they can do has increased more than fourfold over the past decade.
Poor mental health is now the leading work-limiting health condition among people aged 44 and younger.
For its research, the IPPR calculated that children with severe mental or behavioural issues are much more likely to be depressed adults and suffer a physical or mental condition which impacts their chances of working.
The think tank drew on a new analysis of the 1970 British Cohort Study, which is following the lives of around 17,000 people born in England, Scotland and Wales in a single week of 1970.
The latest findings show that mental health problems at age 10 have significant implications 40 years on.
Children with severe mental and behavioural problems are 85% more likely to have symptoms of depression at age 51 and 68% more likely to have a long-term condition that impacts their ability to work, the report showed.
A long-term condition is defined as any physical or mental condition that people are expecting to last 12 months or more.
The correlation also extended to poor physical health, with children with a physical health problem being 38% more likely to have limited capacity for work later in life.
Furthermore, for every four children developing a long-term health condition, one of their mothers is likely to leave the workforce altogether, the IPPR said.
With rising rates of poor mental health impacting the NHS, council services and social security system, action is needed now, the think tank added.
'Improving children's health is not just morally right – it is a social and economic necessity,' the study said.
'A healthier generation of children is essential to delivering this government's core missions: improving the nation's health, spreading opportunity, and securing sustainable economic growth…
'Poor childhood health casts a 'long shadow'. Children who grow up in poor health are likely to experience worse health outcomes in adulthood, achieve less at school, earn less and rely more heavily on public services throughout their lives.'
The team called for targeted investment on 'high-impact, cost-saving interventions that can deliver early wins', such as mental health support for 14 to 19-year-olds soon to enter the labour market.
Spending on children's mental health needs to be ringfenced, it suggested, while preventative spending should be 'hardwired' in the NHS and other public services.
Dr Jamie O'Halloran, senior research fellow at IPPR, said: 'The earlier we address both physical and mental health challenges children, the more likely we can prevent costly health conditions and worklessness later in life.
'This is not just a matter of improving individual lives, but also of alleviating long-term pressures on the state.'
Amy Gandon, IPPR associate fellow and former senior Department of Health official on children's health, said: 'Successive governments have failed to face up to the long-term consequences of poor child health.
'If this Government is serious about building a preventative state, it must act decisively to improve the prospects of our children and young people.
'What's more, the dividends from doing so need not be decades away; the right action now, for example, for those joining the workforce within a few years, can deliver better health, opportunity and growth within this Parliament.'
Figures show that the number of working-age adults in England claiming disability benefits has risen 41%, from 1.9 million in November 2019 to 2.7 million in May 2024.
Meanwhile, the number of people claiming incapacity benefits increased 40% over the same period, from two million to 2.9 million.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
15 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Fewer resident doctors thought to have gone on strike than in last year's stoppage
Thousands fewer resident doctors are thought to have joined picket lines on Friday during the first day of a five-day strike compared with last year's mass turnout. Although NHS England will only publish data on turnout and cancellations next week, hospital leaders are understood to have observed fewer resident doctors (previously known as junior doctors) on strike and less disruption to services than during the last round of industrial action, which ran from March 2023 until July 2024. While ministers and officials will not receive any statistics until after the five-day stoppage ends on Wednesday, there is a hope within government that the impact might be mitigated, in part by a lower strike turnout. The British Medical Association (BMA) is refusing to comment on how many of its members have joined the stoppage until it is over. The strike will continue until 7am on Wednesday. The public have been urged to keep coming forward for NHS care during this period, and NHS England has urged hospital chief executives to keep routine operations and appointments and only reschedule if there is a risk to patient safety. The NHS chief executive, Jim Mackey, told broadcasters on Friday that the NHS was taking a new approach after learning from previous strikes that 'harm to patients and disruption to patients was much broader than the original definitions'. 'Colleagues in the service have tried to keep as much going as humanly possible as well, and the early signs are that that's been achieved so far, but it is early doors,' he said. 'The thing that colleagues won't compromise is safety in the actual delivery. But it does look like people have really heard that. They're really pulling together to maximise the range of services possible.' Mackey noted that further strikes were 'possible' given the BMA has a six-month mandate. Speaking shortly after the start of the strike on Friday morning at the NHS England headquarters in London, where officials are monitoring its impact, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, praised NHS staff who, he said, were trying to limit its effects. This included, he said, 'many resident doctors who have ignored their union and are turning up for work'. Streeting warned, however, that patients would feel the impact, saying: 'We know that there have been operations, appointments and procedures already cancelled, and we know that there will be real challenges over the next five days.' Calling the BMA's decision to hold the strike a 'reckless and unnecessary action', he added: 'We won't let the BMA hold this country to ransom.' The BMA has agreed to requests for doctors to come off picket lines and work in hospitals experiencing the most pressure. One doctor was told to return to work at Nottingham City hospital's neonatal intensive care unit over the weekend, and a request from Lewisham hospital in south London for two anaesthetists to work on Saturday was also accepted. Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion A smaller strike turnout has been expected because the BMA achieved a lesser mandate in the strike ballot than in 2023. Of 48,000 members, 55% voted, of whom 90% supported industrial action – representing less than half of members – compared with a turnout of 71.25% in 2023's expanded electorate, of whom 43,440 (98.37%) voted to go on strike. During the last round of 12 strikes in 2023 and 2024, nearly 1.5m appointments were rescheduled. In the final industrial action from 7am on Thursday 27 June to 7am on Tuesday 2 July, 23,001 staff were absent from work at the peak of the action. The BMA is asking for a rise of 29% over the next few years in order to achieve what it considers to be full pay restoration to pre-2008 levels, after the 2023 industrial action resulted in a pay bump of 22% to cover 2023-24 and 2024-25. At present, ministers have offered a 5.4% pay rise for 2025-26. The BMA council chair, Dr Tom Dolphin, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that a 'clear, guaranteed pathway' to pay restoration would be required for resident doctors to return to work He said: 'So you've got last year's pay offer which did indeed move us towards [pay restoration], but Wes Streeting himself said that pay restoration is a journey, not an event, implying that there would be further pay restoration to come, and we were expecting our pay to be restored in full – that's our campaign's goal. We got partway there, but then that came to a halt this year.' Keir Starmer made a last-minute appeal to resident doctors, saying the strikes would 'cause real damage'. 'Most people do not support these strikes. They know they will cause real damage … These strikes threaten to turn back the clock on progress we have made in rebuilding the NHS over the last year, choking off the recovery,' the prime minister said.
Metro
44 minutes ago
- Metro
What happens to the body when it's dying of starvation amid Gaza hunger crisis
A doctor has detailed what exactly happens to a human body when it's dying from starvation, in a plea for Israel to allow aid into Gaza. Dr Amir Khan goes through step by step how the body begins to break down in the days and hours leading up to death, adding: 'It's not peaceful, it's not quick, it's a slow, lonely descent into silence.' The NHS worker told viewers: 'This is a reel I wish I didn't have to make, but it's so important to speak up and for people to know this.' It comes as the United Nation's food agency, the World Food Programme (WFP), said almost a third of people in Gaza are 'not eating for days' and describing the crisis has having reached 'new and astonishing levels of desperation'. The WFP said 470,000 people are expected to have faced 'catastrophic hunger' between May and September this year. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Gaza is suffering 'man-made mass starvation' because of an Israeli blockade on aid to the enclave. Israel has denied any responsibility, with some ministers and officials even suggesting there is no hunger in Gaza – but has today allowed foreign aid to be parachuted into the territory. The UN has documented the deaths of dozens of people from malnutrition this week, and says others have collapsed in the streets while trying to reach food. In his post Dr Khan explained that when a person is starving the body first uses up glucose, 'its quickest fuel'. He added: 'That's gone in about 24 hours. You feel shaky, dizzy, cold, your stomach cramps, and worse than the hunger is the exhaustion, like your bones are filled with sand. 'Next, the body burns fat. You lose weight rapidly, your cheeks sink, your clothes hang off you, but your brain is still alert and now it's panicking. 'You can't stop thinking about food, the smell of bread, the memory of taste. It becomes torture.' He said the body then starts 'eating muscle, including the heart'. 'You feel weak, too tired to sit up, your legs tremble, every movement is an effort,' he said. 'You speak less and then you stop speaking altogether. Your brain begins to starve, confusion, hallucinations. 'You see things that aren't there, you forget who you are. It's terrifying. You feel freezing cold, even in the heat.' After this your skin breaks down, he explained, and 'your body hurts to lie on but you can't sit up'. 'In the final stages, organs shut down, breathing becomes shallow, heartbeat slows, consciousness fades,' he added. He concludes the reel by telling viewers: 'Children in Gaza are feeling this right now. This isn't happening in a [natural] famine, this is not a natural death, it's a man-made one, and it's preventable. 'Let aid in, don't look away, don't wait for history to judge, speak now.' Today, UN secretary general António Guterres criticised the international community for turning a blind eye to the suffering of starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, calling it a 'moral crisis that challenges the global conscience'. 'I cannot explain the level of indifference and inaction we see by too many in the international community – the lack of compassion, the lack of truth, the lack of humanity,' he said in a speech via videolink to Amnesty International's global assembly. More Trending The UK government is among those criticised by campaigners for not taking a stronger stance against Israel's actions, and for continuing to allow the supply of arms to its military. They were, however, among 28 countries to have signed a letter condemning the 'the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food'. The statement signed by the 28 foreign ministers added: 'The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazan's of human dignity.' The statement said Israel's war on Gaza 'must end now'. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Tesco urgently recalls lunch time favourites over salmonella fears MORE: Keir Starmer says state is 'inalienable' right of Palestinian people MORE: Wild Nutrition is hosting its first ever London pop-up – here's why you don't want to miss it
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
More pressure on Wes Streeting as nurses and ambulance workers reject pay deal amid militant doctors' strikes
Nurses and ambulance staff have ramped up the pressure on Health Secretary Wes Streeting by rejecting his offer of a 3.6 per cent pay rise. Members of the GMB union voted by a majority of more than two thirds (67 per cent) to go back to the negotiating table. The union has now written to the Secretary of State demanding an 'urgent meeting' to discuss pay and 'other issues of significant importance' to its NHS members. GMB national secretary Rachel Harrison said: 'We await his reply with interest.' AGMB spokesman said the chances of more strike action were 'very limited' because 'the appetite isn't there', but added: 'Workers are unhappy, which is why they have rejected this offer.' The GMB represents around 50,000 ambulance workers and 30,000 nurses, midwives and other NHS staff. It comes as 50,000 resident doctors - formerly known as junior doctors - started a five-day walkout over pay. One defied militant union bosses by crossing the picket line and reporting for duty, warning strikes may destroy vital public trust in the NHS. Dr Adam Boggon broke ranks with striking colleagues and claimed the BMA was 'not necessarily in the same place as much of the profession'. The psychiatrist at Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, East London, said he was 'alarmed' that the BMA was willing to lose public support in pursuit of an inflation-busting 29 per cent pay rise. 'I am not willing to pay that price,' he told Times Radio. 'The relationship between the doctor and the patient is based on trust and confidence. If we do damage to that basic relationship, that's bad for everyone.' He added: 'My education was funded by the taxpayer. Negotiation isn't about making unilateral demands and then walking away, or badmouthing a whole profession either. 'I think that both of these protagonists - the union and Mr Streeting - can do a lot better than they are at the moment.' The BMA revealed it had told three members to skip the strike and return to work this weekend for patient safety - a trainee paediatrician on the neonatal intensive care unit at Nottingham City Hospital and two anaesthetists at University Hospital Lewisham in south London. Dr Melissa Ryan, who is leading the BMA strike alongside Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, joined a picket line outside St Thomas' Hospital in Westminster, London. She told members: 'We have a government that wants to divide us, but we are stronger than that. 'I encourage you to hold the line, strike hard, and wait for the government to come back and make the next move with a credible offer.' Striking doctors waved banners including 'Do no harm - except to our bank balances!' and 'Why is my assistant paid more than me?' Dr Emre Karaduman, 27, who works at Ealing Hospital, west London, said: 'Our pay has been degraded since 2008. I know there was a financial crisis, but doctors shouldn't have to pay the price for that. 'If Wes Streeting wants us to help cut the patient waiting list, he needs to give us full pay restoration.' One doctor from Chelsea and Westminster hospital, who gave her name as Naiha, 25, accused Mr Streeting of 'guilt tripping' doctors by claiming lives would be put at risk – and rejected comparisons between doctors and other public officials who have not received such large pay rises. 'It's pointless trying to compare doctors to other professions,' she said. 'If people in other sectors feel hard done by, I would urge them to strike as well. I think everyone deserves to be paid a living wage, and right now ours barely scratches the surface.' Another who gave his name as Joe, 26, added: 'Medicine is an incredibly important career. We go through a massive amount of training and take on a lot of risk and responsibility that people in other sectors don't. But I've got a friend in finance whose bonus last year was more than double my salary.' Mr Streeting condemned the strike as 'reckless, unnecessary and unreasonable', as resident doctors have already received inflation-busting pay rises totalling 28.9 per cent over three years. 'A 28.9 per cent pay rise and a government that was willing to work with them are not grounds for strike action,' he said. 'This government will not allow the BMA to hold the country to ransom. 'We are doing everything we can to minimise the risk to patients, but I want to be honest with people - what we can't do is eliminate disruption or risk. 'However much the BMA try and sugar-coat it, what they are fundamentally doing today is forgetting the three words that should be at the forefront of every doctor's mind every day: Do No Harm.' He added an 'amazing mobilisation' by other NHS staff, including senior doctors cancelling annual leave, had helped 'keep the show on the road'. 'We are also seeing lots of resident doctors turning up to work today, ignoring their union because they want to be there for patients too,' he said. 'This is going to be a disruptive five days, but I am extremely grateful to NHS staff and leaders who are working their socks off to minimise the disruption.' Some elective procedures will have to be cancelled or delayed due to the strikes, extending waiting lists. The BMA has suggested this is no great hardship, but Mr Streeting said patients who have been waiting a long time for such procedures 'do come to harm'. BMA council chairman Dr Tom Dolphin told the Today programme it was 'very disappointing to see a Labour Government taking such a hard line against trade unions'. Resident doctors are qualified doctors in clinical training. They have completed a medical degree and can have up to nine years of working experience as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to five years of working and gaining experience to become a GP. On Friday, NHS chief executive Jim Mackey said he hoped the BMA would come back to the negotiating table. 'I would hope that after this, we will be able to get people in a room and resolve the issue,' he said. 'We could be doing this once a month for the next six months, so we've got to organise ourselves accordingly.'
