COVID-19 impacts on children under 5 in temporary accommodation-co-developing solutions from lockdown to the recovery phase-A mixed-methods study

The temporary accommodation (TA) environment combined with barriers to accessing early years health services place children under age five (under5s) at risk of increased morbidity and mortality (Burton et al. 1998; Marmot 2020), further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Culturally tailored support services and interventions for the health of children living in TA is a recognised gap in current UK health service provisions. Institute of Health Visiting and third sector organisations are urgently calling for targeted solutions and interventions to ensure the short- and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on these vulnerable children is addressed. Building on the research team expertise in participatory, culturally-sensitive citizen science research with marginalised communities, we will describe the National impact of COVID-19 on under5s and their families living in TA and utilize co-production to identify suitable, acceptable and feasible integrated crosssector public health intervention solutions for the recovery phase. These solutions will be contextualised for local application and acceptability but grounded in evidence and learnings from globally recognised effective interventions and be aimed at overcoming access barriers by reaching out to the families and communities (e.g. introduction of mobile health clinics)(Yu et al. 2017). However, for the UK-tailored approach to increase successful implementation of the public health solutions and minimise inequality and inequity gaps faced by under5s living in TA, community and professional engagement will drive the co-development process (Questa et al. 2020). Similarly, engagement with health and social care commissioners will ensure that the appropriate evidence to support adoption and implementation decisions is produced.