Children in Great Britain with serious mental health conditions are two-thirds more likely to have a limited ability to work in adulthood, according to research from a leading thinktank.
Thereportby researchers at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) looked at data from about 6,000 people who took part in the 1970 British Cohort Study, which is following the lives of individuals born in a single week in 1970 across Great Britain.
The analysis found that people who had severe mental and behavioural issues as a child were 85% more likely to have symptoms of depression at the age of 51, and 68% more likely to have a long-term condition that affects their ability to work.
Children with a physical health problem were 38% more likely to have limited capacity for work in later life, according to the analysis.
The government has pledged to “raise the healthiest generation of children in our history”.Labourhas committed to introducing a targeted national dental hygiene programme, cutting paediatric waiting times with 2m more operations, and setting a 9pm watershed for junk food advertising.
The IPPR recommended the government safeguard spending on children and preventive spending in the NHS and other public services, and expand the role of the children’s commissioner.
In January, the Guardian reported that the number of children referred to emergency mental healthcare in Englandhad risen by 10% in a year, with lengthy waiting lists for regular NHS care pushing more to crisis point.
Previous research by the IPPR estimated that the hidden cost of rising workplace sickness in the UK hadpassed £100bn a year, with employees now losing the equivalent of 44 days of productivity because of working through sickness, up from 35 days in 2018.
Amy Gandon, an associate fellow at the thinktank and a former senior government 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.”
Dr Jamie O’Halloran, a senior research fellow at the IPPR, said: “The earlier we address both physical and mental health challenges for 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.”
A Department ofHealthand Social Care spokesperson said: “As this report demonstrates, prevention is better than cure. That’s why this week, we expanded access to mental health teams in schools to almost an extra million children.
“We are investing an extra £680 million for mental health services, recruiting 8,500 extra mental health workers, and delivering an extra 345,000 talking therapies.
“Through our Plan for Change, we will tackle the mental health crisis and give every child a healthy start to life.”