{"id":109,"date":"2009-04-21T10:23:57","date_gmt":"2009-04-21T09:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=109"},"modified":"2009-04-21T12:41:26","modified_gmt":"2009-04-21T11:41:26","slug":"uk-among-worst-places-in-europe-to-be-a-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/04\/21\/uk-among-worst-places-in-europe-to-be-a-child\/","title":{"rendered":"UK among Worst Places in Europe to be a Child"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Child Poverty Action Group has published a report<\/a> today in which the UK is accused of being among the worst places in Europe to be a child on\u00a0a range of measures.\u00a0 For example, the UK comes 24th out of 29 countries when it comes to the assessment of birth-weight; it’s 21st when it comes to children’s subjective assessment of their own wellbeing.\u00a0 In other fields, things aren’t quite so bad – “the UK does quite well on health behaviours”, but, nevertheless, “it scores badly on immunisation rates for key childhood diseases.”<\/p>\n

Now, of course, this has to be taken in context.\u00a0 Just because the UK is towards the foot of a given table, it doesn’t follow that the situation is bad.\u00a0 In any rank-ordering, someone has to come last.\u00a0 The guy who finishes last in the final of the Olympic 100m sprint isn’t, by virtue of his place, a poor runner.\u00a0 The same applies here: “worst” does not imply “bad” or even “getting worse”.\u00a0 Children in the UK are, on the whole, probably better off in many if not all respects than were their parents and grandparents.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, though, it is a bit worrying that, in terms of health, the UK is ranked only slightly better than Romania and Malta.\u00a0 Nothing against Romania and Malta, of course – but the UK is significantly wealthier, and so one might reasonably expect health differentials to be greater.<\/p>\n

The report’s only 11 pages long, and it’s well worth a read.\u00a0 It’s also interesting to have a look at how its findings are reported in the media – just as a hint, and based on a fairly cursory survey, the more conservative the outlet, the more grudging and distorted the reportage.\u00a0 After all, the report comes out in favour of higher public spending and refuses to condemn single mothers.\u00a0 That doesn’t really fit in with the Broken Britain mantra, does it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Child Poverty Action Group has published a report today in which the UK is accused of being among the worst places in Europe to be a child on\u00a0a range of measures.\u00a0 For example, the UK comes 24th out of 29 countries when it comes to the assessment of birth-weight; it’s 21st when it comes […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,394,475],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-methodology","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nUK among Worst Places in Europe to be a Child - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/04\/21\/uk-among-worst-places-in-europe-to-be-a-child\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UK among Worst Places in Europe to be a Child - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Child Poverty Action Group has published a report today in which the UK is accused of being among the worst places in Europe to be a child on\u00a0a range of measures.\u00a0 For example, the UK comes 24th out of 29 countries when it comes to the assessment of birth-weight; it’s 21st when it comes [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/04\/21\/uk-among-worst-places-in-europe-to-be-a-child\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-21T09:23:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2009-04-21T11:41:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/04\\\/21\\\/uk-among-worst-places-in-europe-to-be-a-child\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/04\\\/21\\\/uk-among-worst-places-in-europe-to-be-a-child\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"UK among Worst Places in Europe to be a Child\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-04-21T09:23:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-04-21T11:41:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/04\\\/21\\\/uk-among-worst-places-in-europe-to-be-a-child\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":339,\"commentCount\":6,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"In the News\",\"Methodology\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/04\\\/21\\\/uk-among-worst-places-in-europe-to-be-a-child\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/04\\\/21\\\/uk-among-worst-places-in-europe-to-be-a-child\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/04\\\/21\\\/uk-among-worst-places-in-europe-to-be-a-child\\\/\",\"name\":\"UK among Worst Places in Europe to be a Child - 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