Covid-19 has uncovered entrenched health inequalities; hobbling UK children even prior to birth and creating a ‘twin-track childhood’ on course to derail a post-pandemic recovery unless children are placed at the heart of it.
This is the view of ‘The Early Years’: a Report developed by 31 academics, voluntary sector and childcare professionals and published today by The Children’s Alliance.

Honorary President, Baroness (Frances) De Souza said:
‘I’m delighted to welcome ‘The Early Years’ – the first in a quartet of ‘Children’s Alliance’ Reports. This is where we must start if the Government’s aim of ‘levelling up’ post-pandemic is to be realised.

The inequalities besetting our very youngest children do not owe their origin to Covid-19 – but the pandemic has opened our eyes to them. This Report and its successors on Physical Health, Mental Health and Family and Community will prove that need for a Cabinet Minister for Children is irrefutable if ‘the right to thrive’ is to be enjoyed by all UK citizens .’

Using the most up-to-date references, the Report presents the current picture of family life post-Covid across a range of child wellbeing indicators.