Health: Diabetes 11:15:00 Lord Harrison asked Her Majesty’s Government: What plans they have to reduce the incidence of diabetes amongst children The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham) My Lords, we know that the number of children developing diabetes is increasing. There are an estimated 20,000 children with type 1 diabetes in England, and some experts suggest that there may also be up to 1,000 children with type 2 diabetes. The close link between diabetes and obesity means that it is vital that we reduce the number of children becoming overweight and obese. Our strategy Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives focuses on children and aims to reduce the proportion of overweight and obese children in the population. Lord Harrison My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that Answer. My noble friend Lady Thornton and I met this week in Westminster brave and inspiring children who suffer discrimination at school because of prejudice and misunderstanding. This treatment may be due to having to test blood in front of other children in the classroom, being locked in a store cupboard to take their insulin injection or being banned from school because the school nurse is not there. Will my noble friend work with Diabetes UK, the EarlyBird Diabetes Trust and the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families to eliminate the causes for a mother ever again having to hear from her child, “Mummy, please take away my diabetes. I want to be like everyone else”? Lord Darzi of Denham My Lords, I am grateful for my noble friend’s leadership in championing the cause of diabetes in children. I am also grateful to Diabetes UK, which produced this fantastic evidence-based document on the state of diabetic care for children in England. All schools have a legal duty under Part 4 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to make responsible adjustments to help ensure that disabled children and young people are not in any way disadvantaged compared with their peers. That includes patients and children with type 1 diabetes and covers all extra-curricular activities such as school trips. As for working with DCSF, a cross-government publication entitled Managing Medicines in Schools and Early Years Settings, published in 2005, highlights the importance of schools working in partnership with parents and PCTs to ensure that all the resources are available in schools to manage children with type 1 diabetes. Baroness Masham of Ilton My Lords, will the Minister strengthen the guidelines in schools? Some parents have to give up their jobs so that they can help their children in school, and some schools are so much more helpful than others. Lord Darzi of Denham My Lords, in April 2007 a group published Making Every Young Person with Diabetes Matter. Those recommendations are now being taken forward and implemented by our national clinical director for children and by other stakeholders and professional bodies, including Diabetes UK. I have no doubt that, as these recommendations are implemented, we will see significant improvement in the support that children get in schools. Earl Howe My Lords, we read and hear a great deal about the diet of school-age children, but does the Minister share my concern that we read and hear very little about the diet of young babies and toddlers and the impact that diet in the early months of life may have on health in later years? What research is being done into this particular aspect of the issue? Lord Darzi of Denham My Lords, I think that I would go even further than that: diet during pregnancy is as important as diet in the early months, or even years, of life. I do not have the full details of the research in this field but would be more than happy to get the references on what has been done. Baroness Tonge My Lords, perhaps I may further press the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Harrison. Surely the Minister must realise that only 16 per cent of schools that have children with type 1 diabetes have a proper medications policy. Combined with the demise of community clinics up and down the country, with mothers no longer able to access advice so easily from health visitors and district and specialist nurses, there has been a great fall in the resources available to mothers of young children. How will the Minister address that problem? Lord Darzi of Denham My Lords, we have clear guidance, Making Every Young Person with Diabetes Matter, to which I referred earlier. School boards, through local authorities and PCTs, should ensure that all the resources are available in all schools so that young patients are cared for. A significant number of schools across the country provide high-quality support and we need to learn from their example. There has to be partnership not just with the schools but with local authorities, the PCTs and the parents themselves in finding the right pathways and resources for kids in school. Baroness Finlay of Llandaff My Lords, what are the Government doing to ensure that the NICE guidance, which recommends that all children under the age of 12 with type 1 diabetes have access to insulin pumps and specialist paediatric diabetic nurses, is adhered to? Lord Darzi of Denham My Lords, the NICE guidance, which was recently looked at again, recognises the importance of insulin-pump therapy and its advantages in glycaemic control. Since the updating of the guidance the pump therapy is, as the noble Baroness suggested, now recommended for children under 12 where MDI is impractical or inappropriate. For children over 12, it is recommended if the MDI result is disabling hypoglycaemia. As with any of the other NICE guidelines, we need to encourage PCTs to implement them. One important study currently being carried out in Cambridge, the adolescent diabetes intervention trial, includes hundreds of kids, not just from the UK but also from Australia and Canada. I have no doubt that it will show even more promising results in this field. Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean My Lords, the incidence of diabetes is incredibly high in the Middle East, but they have enormous resources which they are ploughing into research in this subject. Can my noble friend tell us anything about international co-operation on research? Lord Darzi of Denham My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend. As I am sure many of us are fully aware, World Diabetes Day was observed in the past week. It is extremely important occasion to remind everyone of the impact of this condition. I am particularly pleased that the emphasis this year was on children and young people. My noble friend is right that the incidence of diabetes worldwide is increasing. There are 250 million diabetics worldwide. I have no doubt that this global campaign will increase not only awareness but, more important, collaboration between different countries so that some of the innovation on which we lead in this country can be translated to some of the countries in need.