"Children who are migrants or living in temporary accommodation are the unseen and the unheard because often, we simply don't have data on them."
In this expert interview, Monica Lakhanpaul, Professor of Integrated Community Child Health at UCL GOS Institute of Child Health, shines a light on a group of children too often missing from vaccination statistics altogether: those who are mobile, marginalized, and invisible to the health system.
Children living in temporary accommodation, and those in migrant or mobile families, often fall outside routine data systems, making them less visible to the health system. For their families, accessing vaccination can mean navigating a mix of structural and practical barriers, including language, distrust, lack of childcare support, transport, and insecure or inflexible working patterns.
Monica's point is that this is not about unwillingness. Parents want their children protected. The challenge is that access to care is shaped by friction at every stage. Her view is that the answer lies not in a single intervention, but in building a coordinated ecosystem across health, housing, and community services, so trusted professionals can support families, build relationships, and make access easier.
Key takeaway: Closing the gap for the most vulnerable children requires integrating the system around their lives, not asking them to navigate a system built for others.
