Levelling Up White Paper: Key points for the children's sector

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove has revealed the government’s 12 missions for improving inequality across the UK by 2030.

The creation of 55 education investment areas (EIAs) to boost outcomes for children in the most disadvantaged areas and reiteration of commitments to increase access to youth services for all young people are highlighted in the Levelling Up White Paper.

• Blog: Can I level up with you?

• Special report: Social mobility in the early years

Other measures aimed at improving inequality for children and young people include:

Education and employment

• The creation of 55 EIAs designated in local authorities in England where school outcomes are currently weakest, 95 per cent of which will be outside London and the South East. 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”, according to Gove. EIA target areas include Walsall, Sunderland, Rochdale and the Isle of Wight.
• A pledge to increase the proportion of primary school children meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths to 90 per cent by 2030. This would mean an increase of a third in the most disadvantaged areas.
• As part of plans to reduce unemployment, which is particularly prevalent among young people, the government says it will provide 200,000 people with training to boost employability skills by 2023. This includes extending the capacity of the Supported Internship programme for young people with additional needs.
• Plans to improve support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families, including support for local authorities to improve monitoring and intervention and support for schools and colleges to work with pupils with SEND through training on specific needs like autism.

Youth services

• The building or renovation of 300 new youth centres through the £368m Youth Investment Fund.
• A Youth Guarantee which aims to provide accessible youth services for every young person by 2025. This was first mentioned in the Conservative Party's 2019 general election manifesto. 
• £171m investment in a new year-round National Citizen Services (NCS) which offers residential stays, non-residential work in the community and online opportunities including workshops in financial management and public speaking.
• The NCS will pilot a ‘Year of Service’ programme, an employability initiative offering young people a nine- to 12-month paid service placement in their local communities. The pilot is planned to support 330 young people into socially impactful jobs with wages funded by the NCS Trust CiC and the government’s Kickstart scheme. 
• Youth services across 45 local authorities and around 600 district wards in the most deprived parts of England will be eligible to apply for the £368m Youth Investment Fund.
• The Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme will be offered to every state-funded secondary school in England by 2025, in collaboration with the Department for Education.
• Waiting lists for uniformed youth groups for 11- to 18-year-olds in England will be scrapped.
• DCMS will provide £4m to the iwill fund to create youth volunteering opportunities.
• The government will fund approximately 550 bursaries for entry level qualifications in youth work.
• £44 million will be released from the Dormant Assets Scheme to support charities, social enterprises, and vulnerable individuals.

Social care

• Councils will receive £30m for the next three years to set up more than 10,000 additional respite placements, helping to provide positive opportunities for disabled children and young people.
• A £200m investment, first announced in the 2020 Spending Review, to boost the Supporting Families Programme has been highlighted in the white paper.
• A new devolution framework will be introduced allowing areas to enact devolutionary powers for public services including responding to local need. 

Health

• Recommendations will be taken forward from Henry Dimbleby’s review towards a National Food Strategy. The DfE says it will work with the Food Standards Agency to pilot measures to ensure greater compliance with the school food standards. The government also plans to pilot the Community Eat Well programme, enabling GPs to prescribe exercise and healthy food.
• The government plans to narrow the inequality gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030.
• Plans have been put forward to improve wellbeing in the most disadvantaged areas by 2030.

Justice

• £50m from the Safer Streets Fund will be invested every year to improve resources for police and crime commissioners and local authorities in England and Wales to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.
• The white paper also suggests further investment in the government’s 10-year drugs strategy which involves tackling county lines gangs responsible for the exploitation of vulnerable young people.