September 10, 2026 - 113 views
Children’s health in Wales is showing worrying signs of decline, with paediatricians warning that urgent action is needed to prevent a generation growing up with poorer health and wellbeing.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) says progress has stalled or gone backwards in a number of important areas, with the impact felt particularly strongly in more deprived communities.
The warning has particular relevance for North Wales, where families rely on services provided across the large Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board area, stretching from Anglesey and Gwynedd through Conwy, Denbighshire and Flintshire to Wrexham.
The RCPCH has examined 12 indicators of children's health, including mental health, obesity, immunisation, oral health, asthma and infant mortality.
Among its findings, more than a quarter of children aged five and six in Wales had obvious tooth decay in 2024-25.
The latest figures for Betsi Cadwaladr show a very similar picture. More than one in four children examined across the health board – 27.4 per cent – had experienced tooth decay in 2024-25. Nearly 2,000 children from 165 schools across the health board were included in the survey.
Public Health Wales says the overall Welsh figure has actually improved in recent years, falling from 32.4 per cent in 2022-23. However, significant inequalities remain, with children in the most deprived areas much more likely to experience tooth decay than those in the least deprived communities.
The latest figures show that 27.3 per cent of four and five-year-olds in Wales are overweight or living with obesity – the highest prevalence recorded since the programme began and the highest among the four UK nations.
Again, deprivation is a major factor. Public Health Wales found that the proportion of children living with obesity was around 75 per cent higher in the most deprived fifth of Welsh communities than in the least deprived fifth.
For North Wales, the issue is not simply about individual choices. Public Health Wales points to the wider circumstances in which children grow up, with poverty linked to poorer physical and mental health, higher rates of obesity and poorer oral health.
Mental health is also a major part of the picture.
The RCPCH estimates that around 135,000 children and young people across Wales are living with a diagnosable mental health condition. That includes around one in six children aged eight to ten, one in five aged 11 to 16 and one in four young people aged 17 to 24.
Public Health Wales' latest figures show that only 84.6 per cent of children in Wales were up to date with their routine vaccinations by their fourth birthday in 2025-26. There are also significant differences according to deprivation, with uptake generally lower in more deprived communities.
The RCPCH says very few routine childhood vaccines in Wales are now meeting the 95 per cent uptake level recommended for strong population protection.
The organisation says the problems cannot be separated from wider inequalities, gaps in health data and pressure on the child health workforce.
It is calling for better data, national targets for children's health and greater investment.
For families across North Wales, many of the services involved in addressing those challenges are delivered locally – through schools, GPs, community health services, dentists, children's services and specialist teams within Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
The challenge is particularly significant because North Wales covers a large and diverse geographical area, with communities ranging from the larger towns along the coast to rural and more isolated areas.
The RCPCH says the consequences of failing to improve children's health now could extend into adulthood, affecting educational outcomes, employment and long-term health.
Its warning is stark: without urgent action, Wales risks raising what paediatricians describe as “one of the unhealthiest generations of children in decades.”
But the latest figures are not all negative. Public Health Wales says childhood tooth decay has continued to fall over the longer term, while Wales has also seen a substantial reduction in child mortality compared with previous years.
The message from paediatricians is therefore not that children's health in Wales is beyond repair, but that progress cannot be taken for granted – and that where inequalities exist, families in the communities facing the greatest challenges need the greatest support.
