pubhealthdev

Everything affects our health and wellbeing. There are factors that cannot be changed such as age, gender and hereditary factors. However, lifestyle and behaviour, the local community, economy, and environment all influence health and wellbeing.

Two key influential factors on health and wellbeing are having good quality education and employment. Being in good work is better for your health than being out of work. ‘Good work’ is defined as having a safe and secure job with good working hours and conditions, supportive management and opportunities for training and development. There is clear evidence that good work improves health and wellbeing across people’s lives and protects against social exclusion. Conversely, unemployment is bad for health and wellbeing, as it is associated with an increased risk of mortality and morbidity. Unemployment and being in poor quality employment can have a profound affect on children and young people growing up in these households. Poverty and deprivation which result have a huge effect on everybody affected. However, they can also have an impact their social norm, motivation, life expectations and ultimately on their education.

Good education improves career prospects, raises aspirations, and gives people more financial control over their lives. Poor education and training, and low educational attainment can affect confidence, aspirations, and increase the risk of lifelong unemployment, benefit dependency or low paid employment. These factors have a strong influence on health and wellbeing. Children (and adults) with low confidence and aspirations, and with low educational attainment are more likely to make poor choices in their lives, are less likely to achieve well-paid satisfying regular employment, have poor resilience, and increase the likelihood of poor health and wellbeing.

Children and young people have limited ability to influence their circumstances to improve their health and wellbeing so the focus must be on families and crucially giving children the best start in life. Children and young people can mimic parental behaviour, and poor life choices, poor parenting, mental health problems and domestic abuse can result in cyclic behaviour from generation to generation if it is not addressed.

Further information relating to external factors which affect health such as Deprivation and Poverty, Housing, Environment Factors, Educati0n and Qualifications, Employment, Economy and Healthy Workplaces, and Financial Resilience are given for Hull. Lifestyle and behavioural factors which influence health are examined within Adults and within Children and Young People.

• Hull has a relatively young population compared to England.
  • In 2019, it is estimated that 259,778 people live in Hull with almost one-quarter (24.4%) of them aged 0-19 years (63,469).
  • In January 2019, 22.8% of children attending Hull schools were from Black and Minority Ethnic groups (9,701 children out of 42,613).
  • There are just over 3,000 births each year in Hull.
  • In January 2020, there were 70,852 children and young people aged 0-19 years who were registered with Hull GPs.
  • The population of 0-19s is projected to increase slightly (by 130-260 per year) to a high of 64,246 for the year 2023 before decreasing until 2038 with the greatest decrease of around 400-500 per year around 2030. Many factors can influence births, deaths and migration, so estimates further into the future are more likely to be more inaccurate. This masks changes for different single years of age and age groups though. Between 2018 and 2025, the number of 0-4s and 5-9s are projected to decrease by 10% and 8% respectively whereas the number of 10-14s and 15-19s are projected to increase by 10% and 18% respectively.
• High levels of deprivation and child poverty which impact severely on all aspects of life for children, adults, families and communities, as well as many other issues associated with deprivation and poverty.
  • Hull is among most deprived 2% of local authorities in England (fourth out of 317).
  • Three in ten children in Hull living in relative poverty compared to 18% for England.
  • The rate of households with dependant children or pregnant women as unintentionally homeless and eligible for assistance was twice as high as England in 2017/18 (3.6 versus 1.7 per 1,000 households).
  • Parental arguments and separation can have an impact on children. As might be expected, issues to do with work can be associated with tensions in a relationship. National research from Public Health England’s Improving Health Outcomes for Vulnerable Children and Young People has shown that children living in workless couple-parent families were almost three times more likely (27.6%) to have a parent reporting a distressed relationship as those where both parents worked (9.7%). This may lead to parental separation.
  • Parental alcohol and substance abuse, parental mental health and domestic abuse rates are all high in Hull can can have a dramatic effect on children and their families. These three factors are often referred to as the ‘toxic trio’.
  • The rates of children with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities is also relatively high in Hull.
• Children and young people have limited ability to influence their circumstances to improve their health and wellbeing so the focus must be on families. They are dependent in terms of:
  • housing (quality of housing, space to eat together, garden to play in, quiet suitable place to do homework, etc);
  • domestic and family circumstances (domestic abuse, parental employment, parental mental health, parental substance use, caring responsibilities, lone parent families, step families, etc);
  • lifestyle factors (diet, physical activity, healthy weight, smoking, alcohol, substance abuse, etc);
  • education (quality of school, parental support, access to books, the internet and home tablets and computers, etc); and
  • a host of other factors outside their control.
• The health of babies and infants gets off to a poor start in Hull.
  • One in five pregnancy women in Hull smoked during their pregnancy twice as many as England.
  • Only one-third of babies were breastfed at 6-8 weeks compared to over 45% in England.
  • Fewer children in Hull are ready for school.
• The rate of children in need and looked after children is high in Hull.
  • In 2018, 2,513 children were identified as ‘in need’ has abuse or neglect identified as the primary reason which represents a rate of 445 per 10,00 children which is more than twice as high as England (181).
  • There is a very high rate of looked after children in Hull with twice the rate of looked after children compared to England.
• Use of healthcare is high in Hull and dental health is poor in Hull.
  • Vaccination rates among young children (under fives) are generally comparable to or higher than England, although in some cases are still below the national targets. The exception is the flu vaccination among 2-3 year olds and primary school pupils. Vaccination rates among secondary school pupils are worse though in relation to vaccinations for human papillomavirus (HPV) and the Meningococcal ACWY conjugate.
  • From Hull’s Young People Health and Wellbeing Survey conducted in 2016, 23% of boys and 14% of girls stated their general health was excellent and a further 37% of boys and 36% of girls stated it was very good. Overall, 9% of boys and 12% of girls stated their health was fair and 2.2% of boys and 2.9% of girls stated their health was poor. Self-reported health deteriorated with age.
  • One in ten boys and 13% of girls reported having a long-term illness or disability that limited their daily activities.
  • Improvements have been made in dental health, but the percentage of 5 year olds with experience of visually obvious dental decay is 50% higher than England.
  • Attendance at A&E and admissions to hospital are generally higher than England, although this is not across all age groups or medical conditions. However, in the case of those aged 0-4 years, A&E attendances and admissions relating to diabetes, epilepsy, alcohol and substance abuse the rates in Hull are substantially higher than England. Across all age groups, A&E admission rates in Hull have increased sharply between 2016/17 and 2018/19, and whilst emergency hospital have decreased slightly in Hull between 2015/16 and 2018/19 they are still higher than England.
• High levels of poor lifestyle choices among children such as smoking, poor diet, inactivity, alcohol and drug consumption, and obesity.
  • Smoking, poor diet, inactivity, obesity, and alcohol and substance use are high among adults in Hull which has a high impact on children, and can also impact on children’s future health and health behaviours.
  • Just under a half of young people in Hull live with a smoker.
  • High levels of child obesity.
  • Low levels of children in Hull eating 5-A-DAY.
  • High levels of physical inactivity.
  • High levels of hospital admission rates for alcohol and substance use among young people in Hull.
• Outcomes are also worse among teenagers.
  • Educational attainment is lower than England.
  • The percentage of 16-17 year olds not in education, employment or training (NEET) is higher than England.
  • Despite considerable progress in the rate of under 18 conceptions in the last 10-15 years the rate is still much higher than England.
  • The rate of first time entrants into the youth justice system is around 40% much higher than England.

There are specific individual pages relating to the health needs of Children and Young People within the main menu. However, this page combines this information relating to those specific topic areas together with other factors influential such as those mentioned under Health and Wellbeing Influences into a single – rather long – page of information relating to children and young people. As parental, carer and adult circumstances, behaviours and lifestyles are hugely influential on children and young people, some factors below relate to adults with further information covered in more detail within the Adults or Vulnerable Groups.