Abstract
I’m writing this editorial as a new year starts; it is one of many anniversaries we will observe this year. The word anniversary is a mid 15th century English word derived from the Latin word anniversarius (returning yearly), from annus ‘year’ and versus ‘turning’. An old English word for anniversary wasmynddæg, literally ‘mind-day’ (Online Etymology Dictionary, 2022). I like the idea of ‘mind-day’ as it encompasses so much of what anniversaries mean to us.
Like many anniversaries, the start of a new year is often time for contemplation and resolution. A time when we come together, share memories, make plans and consider whether our hopes, ambitions and plans have been attained. Anniversaries can be times of joy but also times when we feel sad, isolated, remember losses, and loved ones.
So why this focus on anniversaries and reflection? Partly, this reflection has been triggered by thinking about how particularly hard the past few years have been globally for children. My reading and engagement with colleagues internationally brings this into sharp relief. Yet, while poverty lies at the heart of many of the challenges to children’s health “child poverty is neither inevitable nor immune to efforts to address it” (UNICEF, 2022). This cannot be restated often enough.
Over 140 years ago an economist commented that ‘the association of poverty with progress is the great enigma of our times’ (George, 1882). Progress against poverty is precarious. The United Nations state that ‘4 years of progress against poverty have been erased by COVID-19’ (United Nations, 2022). Disparities in child health outcomes exist between countries. In the UK, child health outcomes are suboptimal in comparison to other rich countries and, for children living in poverty, the ‘odds stack up’ against them with ‘disproportionately bad effects’ (Lee et al., 2022). However, action is taking place and, along with global initiatives, national bodies and professional associations have been responding to the impact of poverty on child health outcomes.
In the UK, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have made a concerted effort to advocate for and shape policy around health inequalities (RCPCH, 2022) and paediatricians have called for radical reconsideration of their role in relation to child poverty. In a paper calling for a social paediatrics perspective, Singh (2022) argues that what it is needed is a ‘bottom-up, grassroots organizing around social justice and developing the knowledge and tools to fight [poverty]’. The Association of British Paediatric Nurses (ABPN) takes a similar stand in advocating against child poverty and warning against the widening of health inequalities.
The ABPN is my second trigger for my reflection on anniversaries. In 2023, the ABPN will celebrate its 85th year. As the oldest children’s nursing association in the world, the ABPN has a long history of standing up and being counted. Its main aim is to promote the development of children’s nursing through evidence-based information, but it also acts for and on behalf of children. Through a variety of different channels (newsletters, conferences, our journal, committee work and collaboration with other professional bodies) we have advocated for children’s nursing and factors influencing children’s health. We have presented evidence to our members, to the wider public, to committees and to governments. The Association’s rich history is recorded in the ‘Blue Book’, which has recently been updated. The Blue Book reveals how consistently, since ABPN’s inception in 1938, it has stood up for nurses and children (ABPN, 2008). The ABPN continues to lobby and advocate; over the past 12 months our focus has increasingly been on health inequalities.
Over 20 years ago, I wrote an editorial for the journal on health inequalities (Carter, 2002) in which I addressed similar issues. Not much seems to have changed and in 2023 it feels like we are poised, yet again, on a precipice where children’s health outcomes are in danger. It is only by standing together, lobbying for change, and advocating for children that change is possible. As a children’s nurse, a professor of children’s nursing and the President of the ABPN, I know it’s my responsibility to add my own voice to the fight against child poverty. As an organisation, the APBN will add its voice. Each and everyone of us involved in children’s health care needs to add their own voice; we cannot be silent.