• Acute emergency and maternity services
• Cancer
• Cardiovascular
• COPD
• Commissioning support
• Children and young people
  • Case for change
  • Engagement
  • Primary, community and acute services
  • Specialised children’s services
  • Publications
• Dementia
• Diabetes
• Disabled children
• End of life care
• Immunisations and vaccinations
• Local hospitals
• Major trauma
• London and South East England specialised burns project
• Maternity
• Medically unexplained symptoms
• Mental health
• Polysystems
• Staying healthy
• Stroke
• Tuberculosis
• Unscheduled care

Case for change

England lags behind Europe in the level of healthcare provided for children and in recent years key reports have highlighted deficiencies in the quality of services for children in London.

Despite a high-level of spending on children’s services per capita in London, problems include:

• The highest rates of childhood obesity in the UK
• A higher rate of teenagers becoming pregnant than anywhere else in the UK
• Only 32% of London schools achieved ‘healthy school’ status in 2005 – significantly lower than the national average
• Significantly lower rates of children immunised with MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) before their second birthday, compared with the rest of the country
• In some areas, the infant mortality rate is significantly higher than the national average
• High levels of alcohol and substance misuse among young people
• London also falls below the national average in terms of child poverty, the proportion of low weight babies and the prevalence of measles case