Put Children First

Started and led by Alder Hey Children’s Charity and inspired by children and young people, Put Children First is working to end child health inequality in the UK.

Children and young people are our future scientists, innovators, artists, medics, sportspeople and entrepreneurs.

They are our future.

But their health needs have changed and rising inequality across the country is limiting their life chances.

Building a Brighter Future for Children and Young People

A new blog by Fiona Ashcroft, CEO Alder Hey Children’s Charity

The years we spend growing up matter more than we often realise. A safe, supportive childhood sets the stage for better health and happiness later on. But if those early years are marked by hardship, poverty, trauma, or instability, the impact can last a lifetime. What happens when we’re young doesn’t just shape today, it shapes our future.

As we step into 2026, we must focus on how we deliver a brighter future for our children and young people. Last month, two major government strategies were launched – the Child Poverty Strategy and the National Youth Strategy – both signalling a renewed commitment to children and young people after years of de-prioritisation and disinvestment. These strategies build on the 10-Year Health Plan and could mark the start of a new era. But the real challenge lies ahead, to make sure the promises they contain translate into real change.

Read Fiona Ashcroft’s comment on why these strategies are so important

Impact

Since launching in September 2024 Alder Hey Children’s Charity has played an influential role in shaping national conversations and Government policy on children’s health. We have worked to ensure that children and young people are at the centre of decisions affecting their health, wellbeing and future opportunities.

Our advocacy has helped secure greater recognition of children’s health and prevention within the NHS 10 Year Health Plan, alongside contributing to the successful campaign to remove the two-child benefit limit – widely recognised as one of the biggest drivers of child poverty and a policy with significant consequences for children’s health and wellbeing. 

We have strengthened relationships with parliamentarians across both Houses, meeting with MPs and peers to highlight the challenges facing children and young people today, while also welcoming MPs and the Leader of Liverpool City Council to Alder Hey to see first-hand the importance of investing in children’s health and wellbeing. In September 2025, we launched our first major policy report, making the case for greater investment in children’s healthcare innovation. The report generated strong interest across Westminster and helped raise the profile of children’s health innovation nationally. 

We also launched our Put Children First Youth Panel, bringing together children and young people from across the UK to help shape national conversations about health and wellbeing. Working with creative partners, the panel produced engaging social content, including short films and campaign materials designed to spark discussion with MPs and policymakers. 

Alongside our partners in the End Child Poverty Coalition, we continued to campaign for action on child poverty, while raising awareness of the damaging impact poverty has on children’s health. Throughout the year, the coalition highlighted how the two-child benefit limit was pushing 109 children into poverty every day. We were therefore delighted when the Chancellor announced the removal of the policy, citing concerns about the impact of poverty on children’s health, including respiratory illness, as one of the reasons for action. We were proud to attend a reception at Number 11 Downing Street to mark this important step forward for children and families across the UK. 

By working alongside children and young people, healthcare professionals, policymakers and campaign partners, Put Children First is helping ensure children’s voices are heard and strengthens Alder Hey Children’s Charity’s role as a leading advocate for child health across the UK. 

Report: Improving children’s health through innovation and technology

One child looking back at the camera smiling and several others running away across a field.

This report from Alder Hey Children’s Charity and the Put Children First campaign shows how technology and digital innovation can be used to deliver a more preventative approach to children’s health and care.

Led by insights from Alder Hey Innovation, a world leader in digital solutions, the report covers how to use innovation to connect children to healthcare before they need to visit hospital, and how technology can inspire new ways of connecting communities, parents and families to healthcare.

Letters to the Prime Minister

Three young people joined by MP Annaliese Midgeley to deliver an open letter to the Prime Minister at Number 10 on 24th April 2025
As part of Alder Hey Children’s Charity’s Put Children First campaign, the open letter has been written by 16 year old Jai Radcliffe and 11 year old Sophia Morton and signed by more than 30 children, young people and child-focused charities.
The letter is an impassioned plea from the future electorate, saying “we want to make sure every child gets the opportunity to follow their dreams, not letting medical or financial obstacles get in their way”.

Anneliese Midgeley, MP for Knowsley was pleased to support Put Children First: “This campaign is stressing the very clear link between child poverty, inequality, cuts to the NHS and the welfare system – and sick children. I have made my stance on child poverty very clear, and won’t rest until this is eradicated in my constituency and across the country. I hope this letter from the amazing children and young people will encourage the Government to prioritise children and listen to doctors and nurses on the front-line.”

The charities who have supported the letter are Save the Children, Children North East, Obesity UK, Whizz Kids, NHSA, Health Equity North, Feeding Britain, The Children’s Society, PRAN and Children’s Rights Alliance for England

Read the letter and join the campaign.

Watch our short film #IgniteTheSparks

Why Put Children First?

Half a million children and young people visit Alder Hey every year. We hear their stories and we’ve built our hospital and community services around them.

We are seeing rising numbers of diseases in children which should have been eradicated – from measles to tooth decay. Children are presenting with conditions usually only seen in adults such as lung disease and obesity. And the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a rise in mental health related illnesses.

We were delighted when the Chancellor announced the removal of the two child benefit limit, citing concerns about the impact of poverty on children’s health as one of the reasons for action. However child poverty will remain stubbornly high in the UK, leading to ongoing decline in children’s health.

Put Children First is calling for a renewed approach to children’s health: develop a child-first, digitally enabled NHS for children and young people, which puts prevention and community care at its heart.

Alder Hey Children’s Charity is asking political leaders to
Put Children First in order to:

Empower them to live healthier lives.
Reduce the impact of inequality on health
Support children and young people to fulfil their potential

How to Put Children First

Politician leaders and decision makers should listen to children and young people, clinicians, academics and other experts to put children at the heart of every policy.

We see the everyday challenges which can be solved by putting children at the heart of decision making. Children are natural innovators and digital natives – we can follow their lead to provide solutions.

We have three clear goals…

We want to see an NHS fit for the future of our children and young people:

1) A child first NHS.

Appoint a children’s health representative to inform the Ministerial taskforce on child poverty.
Develop a commissioning framework specifically for children and young people to enable partners to jointly commission care that is holistic and makes use of limited resources.

Appoint a children’s representative on every mission delivery board across Government.

2) A data driven, digital NHS for children and young people.

Roll out the NHS number as the child’s unique identifier to improve coordination between education, the health service, social care and wider services that support families, ensuring that no child falls through the gaps.

Ensure that digital and technological solutions in health take into account digital inequality and ensure inclusion for all children, young people and their families.

3) A preventative and community based NHS.

Fund Children’s Health & Wellbeing Hubs in the community to improve access, patient experience and reduce duplication across the system.
Develop an indoor air quality strategy to protect, promote and improve lung health in childhood.

Create better access to NHS dentistry and introduce supervised toothbrushing in early years settings and primary schools.
Ban junk food advertising to children.

Put Children First Campaigns

Our campaigns ask the Government and political leaders to Put Children First in order to end child health inequality in the UK.

Meet ‘The Sparks’: a group of children and young people with unique talents and huge potential. With the right support and a fair chance, The Sparks can do anything they set their mind to! It’s up to us all to Ignite The Sparks.