Hosted by the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) and the Council for Disabled Children (CDC), the Children and Young People’s Health Policy Influencing Group (HPIG) represents a strong, independent voluntary and community sector voice on babies, children and young people’s physical and mental health issues in England.
Membership of the group includes over 70 leading voluntary organisations, Royal Colleges and professional associations engaging in advocacy, research, practice development and service delivery to improve babies, children and young people’s health. We work for babies, children and young people with a range of backgrounds and needs, including disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs, children and young people in care and care leavers and children and young people with cancer.
Together, our work spans the full range of services that aim to improve babies, children and young people’s health, from health promotion and disease prevention to acute medical care. The coalition reflects the much-needed connections across services in health, education, early years, youth work and the criminal justice system.
What we do
The group meets regularly, with policy and project staff from a wide range of children’s health charities discussing government legislation, sharing key pieces of information relating to their work, and identifying shared priorities to inform sector influencing.
In recent years the group has produced joint responses around key policy areas including the Health and Care Bill, Dame Andrea Leadsom’s Early Years Healthy Development Review, the Department of Health’s consultation on refreshing the NHS Mandate, as well as calling for a cross-government strategy in improving the physical, mental and emotional health and well-being of children and young people.