Report shows northern children ‘left behind’

The Children’s Commissioner has found in a new report that children in the North East and North West of England are being “left behind” in their education and life opportunities. Anne Longfield said that it is time now that the government puts children and young people at the heart of the so-called ‘Northern Powerhouse’.

It was found in the report that a child on free school meals living in Hackney, London, is three times more likely to go to university than a child in Hartlepool, showing an ever-widening North-South divide. Mrs Longfield said that children in the North “want a future where they live near their family and community and they want jobs and opportunities to rival anywhere else in the country”.

In a further blow to former Chancellor George Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse initiative, which has been continued by Theresa May’s Conservative government, the report found that children on free school meals in London were 40% more likely to achieve a ‘good’ Maths and English GCSE grade than children of a similar situation in the North of England.

A government spokesperson has responded to the report’s findings by admitting that “there’s more to do” to help children outside of the South thrive.

Mrs Longfield also highlighted in her report how over half of the schools in the North’s most socioeconomically deprived areas which achieved less than a ‘good’ rating from Ofsted are in their situation due to weak leadership, recruitment struggles and inadequate governance.