The Health Professionals Championing Whole Child Health!

Health Professionals for Safer Screens (HPFSS) is the home of health professionals who recognise the impact of screens on childhood. In this article, we report on two of the latest media appearances by our members who, yet again, are bringing not only academic evidence but our frontline professional experience into the mainstream media.

Dr Helen Thomas (left), a Hampshire-based GP, has appeared on numerous BBC platforms this week including BBC Radio Solent and BBC South. Interviewed at a Smartphone Free Childhood event in Bournemouth, Dr Thomas summarised key evidence from the Kindred Squared 2025 School Readiness Survey that reports 49% of teachers feel children are less school ready than Sept 2023. In the 2024 Reception cohort, teachers report over a third (35%) of children struggle to play / share with other children, 36% don’t know how to listen or respond to simple instruction, and a quarter (24%) are not toilet trained. Over half (54%) of teachers and 43% parents highlight children spending too much time on electronic devices as a factor in children not being school ready!

On radio, Dr Thomas further emphasised that screens are having an impact on whole child health: Physical, Mental, Developmental and Social. Dr Thomas highlighted HPFSS’ excellent, evidence-based resources and reiterated the next logical step the government needs to take: a public health campaign! The precautionary principle was also discussed, reminding us that those entrusted with the health of the nation – health professionals – do not wait for harm to happen to their patients, but instead, prevent harm by identifying risk and acting. We thank Dr Thomas for her brilliant efforts and hope to see her again soon!

Sandy Chappell, one of our longest standing members at HPFSS and Speech and Language extraordinaire, made an appearance on GBNews recently. Posed the question of how to make family and phones more compatible, Sandy reminded us that young children often struggle with the concept of time. So, instead of parenting with timings, ie you can only have 20 minutes phone time, parents can enforce boundaries using spaces such as no phones in the dining room or in the bedroom. Screens in these spaces are associated with obesity and poorer attention in the daytime respectively. We thank Sandy Chappell for her continued efforts and will keep a close eye on future work!

We are very grateful for the efforts of Helen and Sandy and hope their efforts energise us all. However, it is not only mainstream media that HPFSS is influencing; political and academic collaboration is ongoing and proves not only the size of the issue, but also crucially the diversity of our approach and membership. Each member that signs up to HPFSS, adds their valid and expert professional experience to our argument, that screens represent a significant threat to the promise of childhood.