The health of our children in the Black Country and Staffordshire
Health chiefs warned today that there will be no easy fix as critical figures showing the state of children's health and wellbeing in the region were revealed.
From the number of teenage pregnancies to child obesity, officials have looked at all aspects of youngster's health across the Black Country and Staffordshire.
Ros Jervis, Wolverhampton's Director of Public Health, said action is being taken after the city was highlighted as 'significantly worse' than the national average in a number of categories in the report released by Public Health England.
While the number of infants dying before their first birthday in Wolverhampton was the highest in the country, with almost eight children per 1,000 live births, the city was not alone in being shamed.
Each of the four Black Country councils were worse than the national average for the rate of teenage pregnancies. Based on the percentage of delivery episodes where the mother is aged under 18 in 2012/13, Walsall had a rating of 2.5 per cent.
Sandwell and Wolverhampton were also above the average rate of teenage pregnancies with 2.2 per cent , according to the figures. Dudley and Staffordshire saw figures of 1.6 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively.
Ros Jervis spoke about moves Wolverhampton was making to address problems the city faced with child obesity. The city has the fattest children in the Black Country and Staffordshire aged between four and five years old.
She said: "Of particular concern to us is the rate of obesity. There's no easy fix to some of these problems but we know that by getting organisations to work together, we can tackle some of the underlying causes."
Sandwell Council is now looking for an external review after figures for the borough's mortality rate was revealed.
Doctor John Middleton, director of public health for Sandwell said: "We are concerned about the high infant mortality rate. I am recommending that an external expert review should be carried out.
"We recognise the high levels of obesity in Sandwell children but this has stablised in recent years. We are implementing a series of new services to address the problems."
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