Children and young people

The foundations of good health and wellbeing are laid at the start of life in pregnancy, childhood, and the teenage years. There are around 370,000 0-19 year olds living in Kent.

See also our pages on maternity, children in care, mental health, obesity, and oral health.

Some of the reports on this page may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. Request an accessible format.

The health assessment of children and young people with special education needs and disability [SEND] (2025) looks at a breadth of health needs from hearing to hospital attendance. It looks at information which highlights and illustrates the differences in the needs of this population of children and young people. It accumulates in recommendations for the system to help respond to and address the key findings. This document can be found linked below.

Our resources

Data and reports

We have produced the following needs assessments:

We have produced baseline data for the Health Child Programme (PDF, 902.3 KB) covering children aged 0 to 4. Also, a teenage conceptions summary (PDF, 729.6 KB), estimates of the prevalence of cerebral palsy, and analysis of hospital admissions for self-harm (PDF, 1.2 MB) involving children and young people.

There are literature reviews for Parenting programmes, support for families with disabled children, Interventions for the prevention and mitigation of ACEs, and access to Special Educational Needs and Disability services for Nepalese families.

External resources

A number of organisations produce statistics relating to the health of children and young people, both at national and local level.

The Office for Health Improvement & Disparaties (OHID) Child Health Profiles and Early Years Profiles provide snapshot overviews of child health for local areas. Their Children and Young People's Health Benchmarking Tool presents a selection of indicators that are most relevant to the health and wellbeing of children and young people.
The Public Health England 'The wellbeing of 15-year-olds: analysis of the What About YOUth? survey' assesses the attitudes of 15 year olds towards healthy lifestyles and risky behaviours.
The National General Practice Profiles present a range of practice and CCG-level data relating to children.
The Public Health Outcomes Framework also provides data on a range of key indicators.
NHS Digital provides immunisation statistics and a report on Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among Young People.
The ONS also provide a range of statistics relating to the health of children and young people, including Childhood, Infant and Perinatal Mortality.