Record number of child deaths last year with hundreds more dying since pandemic

The number of child deaths has hit record levels, with hundreds more children dying since the pandemic, shocking new figures show.

More than 3,700 children died in England between April 2022 and March 2023, including those who died as a result of abuse and neglect, suicide, perinatal and neonatal events and surgery, new data from the National Child Mortality Database has revealed – with more than a third of the deaths considered avoidable.

Children in poorer areas were twice as likely to die as those in the richest, while 15 per cent of those who died were known to social services.

The UK’s top children’s doctor, Dr Camilla Kingdon, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, hit out at the government for failing to act to tackle child poverty, which she said was driving the “unforgivable” and “avoidable” deaths.

The report said: “Whilst the death rate in the least deprived neighbourhoods decreased slightly from the previous year, the death rate for the most deprived areas continued to rise, demonstrating widening inequalities.”

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Source: The Independent, 11 November 2023