Build nurseries in NHS hospitals to allow elderly to mix with toddlers, health secretary Matt Hancock says

Toddlers’ nurseries should be located at NHS hospitals caring for the older generation according to the health secretary, who says the schemes can benefit both groups.

Health and social care secretary Matt Hancock said campaigners looking to save their local hospitals should be lobbying to make them hubs where the young and old are cared for, alongside a range of other services.

Such intergenerational schemes have been pioneered with nursing homes hosting nurseries, such as Nightingale House in Wandsworth, London, which The Independent visited last year – but Mr Hancock is the first health secretary to suggest the NHS could host them.

In an interview with The House magazine, the health secretary said he sees moving more care out of big hospitals as a way to reduce pressure on the NHS and improve access to care.

“I’ve said that the era of the inevitable closure of community hospitals is over because I want community hospitals increasingly to become community health hubs where you have the physios, some of the day cases, the GPs, mental health services and some of the charity-provided services like Aid UK,” he told The House.

“And in some cases, also the nursery, because there’s increasing evidence that if you put services for old people and services for very young people together that you get a better outcome for all of them.

“I’ve seen this work incredibly well in different parts of the country. This is what people who are saving their community hospitals should be campaigning for because this is the way of the future.”

The idea began in Japan in the 1970s and has been trialled in parts of Europe and in America, but has not become established in the UK – despite featuring in a Channel 4 documentary series “Old People’s Home For Four-year-olds”.

In the interview he also criticised social media giants like Facebook and WhatsApp for failing to enforce age limits set out in their own terms of use. An issue he says is contributing to a rise in self-harm and anxiety – particularly among teenage girls.

The government has already ordered guidelines for social media use time limits, and on the issue of rising rates of self-harm among teenage girls, Mr Hancock added: “I definitely think social media has got a part to play.

“The terms and conditions of the main social media sites are that you shouldn’t use it under the age of 13, but the companies do absolutely nothing to enforce against that. And they should, I think that should be a requirement,” he said.

“You shouldn’t be on WhatsApp, according to their own terms and conditions, before you’re 16. And yet, the pressures that people feel under when they’re on a WhatsApp group to wake up in the middle of the night to get back to messages – this is teenagers or young kids who aren’t even teenagers yet.

“So, if the company say that you shouldn’t be on it till 16, they should do something about that and they should empower parents to allow it to happen.”