Children in north 'being left behind', children's commissioner warns
Tristan Donovan
Monday, March 26, 2018
Government efforts to boost the economy in the north of England should include action to stop children and young people being left behind their peers across the rest of the country, the children's commissioner for England has said.
The call comes in Growing Up North, a new report by Anne Longfield that identifies the extent to which the north's 3.6 million children are falling behind their peers in London.
The report found that 54 per cent of schools in the most deprived northern communities are rated as "requires improvement" or "inadequate" by Ofsted compared with 20 per cent across England and just 13 per cent in London.
It also said more children in the north start school with high-level developmental needs than the rest of the country but few have their special educational needs diagnosed before entering school.
The report also found that in northern city regions a relatively high six per cent of children drop out of education and training before the age of 18.
"While many children in the north are thriving, there are huge gaps between the poorest northern kids and those in the south," said Longfield.
"Too many children in the north are facing the double whammy of entrenched deprivation and poor schools. We need to ask why a child from a low-income family in London is three times more likely to go to university than a child who grows up in Hartlepool."
She said the government and local services need to take a series of measures to address the challenges children in the north face.
These measures include central government devolving more powers and funding for children's services to local areas and closer co-ordination between the NHS and local authorities to ensure children have special educational needs identified earlier.
The report also recommended the creation of a 10-year northern schools programme designed to raise the standard of schools in the region's most deprived communities and revising the role of regional school commissioners so that they act as leaders for school improvement.
Local areas should also devise plans to ensure children stay in education or training until 18 and local enterprise partnerships, which bring together employers and local authorities, should expand their efforts to provide northern children with work experience opportunities.
Bodies similar to local enterprise partnerships that bring together all organisations that work with children should also be formed to improve service co-ordination.
Longfield also called on organisations that fund arts, culture and sports activities for children to direct more of their funding to the north of England.
Finally, she urged the government to support the development of children's centres and family hubs in areas of disadvantage in the north and create an innovation funding scheme that encourages northern councils to devise new approaches to tackling entrenched disadvantage in their communities.
"The Northern Powerhouse will only succeed if children are put at the heart of the project," said Longfield. "If the north is to flourish it needs to grow and retain the talents of all its children and truly offer the opportunities in life they hope for."
A government spokeswoman said: "As the Children's Commissioner notes, many children in the north are now thriving, but there is more to do.
"Our Northern Powerhouse programme includes £3.4bn investment in projects to boost the local economy, £12m to spread good teaching practice in English and improve early literacy, and schemes that help families to support their child's education at home."
