The government’s Levelling Up white paper lays out 12 “missions” to align prosperity and opportunities in the UK’s poorest areas to those in the richest.
The paper, published in February by Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove, sets out plans for 55 education investment areas (EIAs) to boost outcomes for children in the most disadvantaged areas and reiterates commitments to increase access to youth services for all young people alongside the offer of a “London-style” devolution deal for local authorities.
However, critics say it is a “missed opportunity” to invest in services for children and young people.
Children’s sector leaders point out that support for early years providers and measures to tackle child poverty are missing altogether.
Here, experts assess whether the plans are enough to mitigate damage caused to young people’s lives by the pandemic and a previous decade of cuts to local authority budgets.
EARLY YEARS
Warm words but no additional funding
A coalition of children’s charities including Save the Children UK, The Children’s Society, Barnardo’s, National Children’s Bureau and Action for Children highlights the omission of any support for the early years sector, warning that a lack of support for childcare providers could increase child poverty in the long-term.
Research by the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) shows there was a 35 per cent rise in nursery closures in 2020/21.
“The first few years of a child’s life are crucial and addressing children’s learning and development in the early years is one of the best ways to prevent the impact of poverty on children and into adulthood,” the charities warn.
Ofsted data shows a four per cent decline in all types of childcare providers registered with the inspectorate between 31 August 2020 and 31 March.
Gove’s paper notes that “children’s early experiences affect lifelong physical and emotional health” and accepts that “all children and families need to be able to access high-quality early years education” – yet offers no additional support.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance says this is “absurd”, dismissing the government’s suggestion that its plans will “achieve substantial improvements in children’s educational attainment” without increased support for the sector.
NDNA chief executive Purnima Tanuku adds that increasing the early years pupil premium – £302 per year – to a level in line with that of school-aged children – from £955 to £1,345 – could be “a first simple step” to helping the most disadvantaged children.
EDUCATION
Focus on areas with weakest attainment outcomes
Plans for a package of education support includes the creation of 55 EIAs in local authorities in England where school outcomes are currently weakest, such as Walsall, Sunderland, Rochdale and the Isle of Wight. Some 95 per cent of these areas will be outside London and the South East, the paper states.
It notes that EIAs will be offered retention payments for teachers and prioritised for new specialist sixth form free schools aimed at giving children from disadvantaged backgrounds access to “the highest standard of education this country offers”.
A pledge to increase the proportion of primary school children meeting the expected standard of reading, writing and maths to 90 per cent by 2030 is also included as well as plans to provide 200,000 people with training to boost employability skills by 2023 and the extension of the capacity of the supported internship programme for young people with additional needs.
Carole Willis, chief executive at the National Foundation for Educational Research, warns the measures will not be effective unless they are delivered on a “sufficient scale”.
Natalie Perera, chief executive of the Education Policy Institute, adds: “It will be important to closely scrutinise the criteria used by the government for selecting EIAs and how it intends to deliver ‘intensive’ support over so many areas.”
Figures from the Nuffield Foundation show that the disadvantage gap in education outcomes for 16- to 19-year-olds has grown since 2017, indicating the scale of the challenge.
HEALTH
Recognition of need but lack of measures to tackle it
According to NHS England, one in six young people now have a probable mental health condition compared with one in nine in 2017.
Data from the Health Foundation and Nuffield Trust reveals an increase of up to 47 per cent in urgent GP referrals to hospital care for children and young people in December 2021.
While no specific measures have been put in place through the white paper to boost children’s health, promises covering all age groups include plans to narrow the inequality gap in healthy life expectancy and improve wellbeing in the most disadvantaged areas by 2030.
The DfE also says it will work with the Food Standards Agency to pilot measures to ensure greater compliance with the school food standards.
The Children’s Society chief executive Mark Russell says he is “pleased” to see a focus on wellbeing in the white paper but calls on the government specifically to “commit to improving children’s wellbeing”.
SOCIAL CARE
Support for families but no action on child poverty
Research by the County Councils Network, published in November last year, estimates that as many as 100,000 children could be in care by 2025 compared with 69,000 in 2015.
The report warns that an “unrelenting focus” on keeping families together is needed to reduce pressure on local authority children’s services, adding that a reliance on expensive care placements could see councils in England spend £3.6bn a year more in 2025 on children in care than figures recorded a decade ago.
Gove’s white paper highlights plans for a £200m investment in the Supporting Families Programme, first announced in the 2021 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).
The programme, a successor to the Troubled Families initiative, aims to support vulnerable families to tackle problems such as domestic violence and mental ill health.
Peterborough City Council received £1m towards its programme in February. Its cabinet member for children’s services, education, skills and university, Lynne Ayres says it “will help us further our whole-family approach”.
The scheme is designed to help prevent children in vulnerable families from ending up in the care system, explains Ayres, adding: “We’ve already seen hundreds of families helped through this programme, and the additional funding means we can help many more.”
However, Charlotte Ramsden, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, describes the white paper as “sorely disappointing” over its failure to address rising child and family poverty.
A joint study carried out by researchers at the universities of Liverpool and Huddersfield, published in January, warns that a one per cent increase in child poverty could be linked to five additional children entering care per 100,000 population.
This meant that more than eight per cent of care entries were linked to rising child poverty between 2015 and 2020, it states.
“The white paper appears to be a golden opportunity missed,” Ramsden says. “Co-ordinated, cross-government action to reduce and, ultimately, end child and family poverty cannot wait.”
A joint statement on the white paper from the coalition of children’s charities adds that “levelling up cannot succeed while families experience rising poverty, debt, homelessness and hunger”.
YOUTH JUSTICE
Commitment to tackle gangs and antisocial behaviour
Measures set to improve life for children at risk of entering the youth justice system are included in more general plans.
Some £50m from the Safer Streets Fund will be invested year-on-year until 2030 to improve resources for police and crime commissioners and local authorities in England and Wales to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour.
Further investment in the government’s 10-year drugs strategy, which involves tackling county lines gangs responsible for the exploitation of vulnerable young people, is also suggested.
Research by The Children’s Society finds that 46 per cent of parents and carers think the risk of children being criminally exploited has increased in their locality since March 2020.
Russell says the government’s pledge to target “worst affected” areas is a concern.
“Investment is needed across the country and not only in selected areas. We would urge the government to prioritise early help, addressing underlying issues, protecting young people and helping them to recover,” he explains.
YOUTH WORK
Emphasis on investment in sector infrastructure
The white paper includes many previously announced measures to boost support for youth services, including the building or renovation of 300 new youth centres through the £368m Youth Investment Fund (YIF) and a youth guarantee that aims to provide accessible youth services for every young person by 2025.
A £171m investment in a new year-round National Citizen Service, an extension of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme and a drive to end waiting lists for uniformed youth groups are also promised alongside the offer for local authorities in the most deprived parts of England to apply for a share of the YIF money.
Leigh Middleton, chief executive of the National Youth Agency, describes the package, much of which was first announced in last year’s CSR, as “another brick in the wall to rebuild youth services”.
“We need to build a dam, not a wall, to level up opportunities with young people,” he adds, noting that over the last decade, youth services have seen a drop of £1bn in local authority funding.
Need to define ‘levelling up’
While sector leaders are keen to welcome any investment to improve life chances for vulnerable young people, it appears much more needs to be done.
As a starting point, both the Local Government Information Unit and Labour’s shadow early years minister Helen Hayes suggest Gove lays out “exactly what is meant by levelling up”.
“It means nothing if it isn’t about reducing inequality for children and making sure that children have the same opportunities, the same support and the same access to services wherever they live in the country,” Hayes says.
While the paper makes some steps towards improving outcomes for the most vulnerable children, without the drive behind it to spark success and without key elements including measures to boost early years provision and tackle child poverty, the sector suggests the paper does not go far enough to meet Gove’s aims.
