Child poverty and deprivation in the UK.

There has been more than a decade of debate about the increase in child poverty during which the former Secretary of State, John Moore, announced 'the end of the line for poverty' (speech text 11 May 1989). Recently the National Children's Bureau has published an authoritative and well documented account commissioned by Unicef for a comparative study of child poverty in the industrialised countries. 1 The association of poverty with childhood mortality and ill health is well established in developing countries2 and it is broadly accepted that the major determinants of improved health in developed countries have been better living conditions, sanitation, and higher standards of living.3 Against an overall trend of continuing improvement in mortality, inequalities of health outcomes between social groups persist and, indeed, may be widening.4