Building research capacity and improving adolescent health through a multisectoral approach

Automatic transcript, lightly edited for readability. It may contain errors, so check it against the video before quoting.

So the project we're going to talk about tomorrow is part of a broader agenda, and the agenda is really around building research capacity in so-called under-researched areas of paediatrics and child health. So the figure we often quote is that children and young people are about 20% of the population. They use about 10% of NHS resources, but they only get about 5% of research funding. So as part of a broader agenda, we really want to increase that investment in child health research and then improve health outcomes and potentially lifelong health for the population.

So the thing that we're going to focus on particularly tomorrow, we're going to be looking at adolescent health and taking a multisectoral or more joined up approach to adolescent health. So what young people tell us is that they don't see the bits of their life as being separate. So they think of their physical health, that might be asthma, it might be epilepsy, it might be diabetes, or it might just be an acute illness, or it might be an injury. They don't see that as completely separate from their mental health, and that might be to do with stress, might be exam stress, social stress, eating disorders, anxiety or depression. Then there's their educational experience and the support that they get within the school or the experiences they have within the school. And then for many there's involvement with the children's social care system and the wider family support that they get.

And what they tell us is that what they're looking for is much more joined up approaches. Too often it's very fragmented. They might get a little bit of support, some social care that might end. They might get some educational support. They might get different NHS services with a long waiting list. And what they really need, and they're asking for quite rightly, is a more joined up approach. And potentially that's not only better for their health outcomes, it can be much more efficient and cost effective for us.

And then I think we see that from the other side. We know that if we get it right within health services, within education, it can have knock-on effects. And what we're hoping to do with this project is really join up the dots. So join up the data, but also join up the narrative, join up the literature, so that we can really demonstrate the benefits of investment in health, investment in education, and see the full benefits not just within that particular sector.