Children in England are facing a national ’emergency’ according to a landmark report that reveals ‘Dickensian’ inequalities are affecting life chances.
The most comprehensive data analysis of its kind has found wide variation across council areas, with Middlesbrough in the North East faring the worst and Cheshire East in the North West faring best.
The study, by Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner for England, analysed 162 measures of children’s lives, across topics including health, education, criminality, housing and welfare.
The other hardest areas for children were Hounslow in west London, Bradford in West Yorkshire and Nottingham in the East Midlands.
Meanwhile, the data showed those living in Surrey in the South East were among the most privileged, as well as those in the London boroughs of Merton and Richmond upon Thames.
The study, set to be published tomorrow, found that a third of children are not ‘school ready’ by the time they reach Reception.
Meanwhile, more than half of pupils do not achieve a good standard in their English and maths GCSEs at the age of 16.
Some 12 per cent of young people feel unsafe in their local area and at least one million children had active referrals to mental health services last year.
Children in England are facing a national ’emergency’, according to a landmark report by Children’s Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza
In a speech tomorrow, Dame Rachel will say she wants to ‘shine a light on where children need the most rigorous attention’.
She will add: ‘Every single local area in England has work to do to make lives better for their children.
‘In some communities, these challenges amount to nothing less than a state of emergency.
‘Not everywhere. But what we see here is a litany of failure. In so many areas of the country, children are being radically failed.’
Dame Rachel’s team found the toughest areas to be a child using 96 metrics to allocate scores to local authorities.
They found children in Blackpool, Lancashire, are 27 times more likely to be missing from education than pupils in Lambeth, south London.
They were also 46 times more likely to be excluded than children from Wiltshire.
The proportion of children who get a good pass (grade 5 or above) in their English and maths GCSEs ranges from 70 per cent in Richmond upon Thames to 31 per cent in Knowsley, near Liverpool.
These two areas were also the best and the worst in the country for having fun activities for children – with 93 per cent of children in Richmond upon Thames saying they had this, compared with 72 per cent in Knowsley.
When it came to access to libraries, Westmorland and Furness in Cumbria performed best, while Sunderland in Tyne and Wear performed worst.
Almost a quarter of children in Croydon, south London, said they felt unsafe, compared with less than 7 per cent of those in Bedford.
The number of children living in temporary accommodation varied from one per 10,000 in Hartlepool, County Durham, to 1,169 per 10,000 in Westminster, London.
Cheshire East scored best overall – 730 out of 960 possible points – partly due to low rates of children in temporary accommodation, little school absence and high vaccination and dental care uptake.
Middlesbrough scored lowest – 408 out of a total of 960 possible points – partly due to a large proportion of children feeling unsafe, high levels of school absence and exclusion, poor development in early primary school and few public playgrounds.
The data came from the Department for Education and ten other public bodies.
Dame Rachel called on the Prime Minister Andy Burnham to create a children’s emergency fund to bring services above a minimum standard in every part of the country.
A deputy mayor should be appointed in each area as part of the devolution programme to tackle the issue, she said.
Education Secretary Lucy Powell said: ‘We’re investing and reforming at every stage of a child’s journey, from more childcare support for their earliest years and higher standards in our schools, broader community support with the rollout of our National Youth strategy and Young Future hubs, to more training and job opportunities as they approach adulthood.
‘Alongside that, I’m bringing local leaders together to help shape the future of education in their areas. We’re putting more power in their hands to deliver.’
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