The stark inequalities between English cities and regions for kids growing up have been laid bare in a new report from the Children’s Commissioner.
Dame Rachel de Souza says her latest release – titled The Childhood Lottery – will ‘confirm what children have been saying: the postcode lottery they feel is real’.
The challenges faced by young people in some places are ‘so significant that they amount to a state of emergency’, she added.
By gathering more than 160 measures of children’s lives, Dame Rachel has picked out the parts of the country where they face the toughest time growing up.
They include Middlesbrough, Hounslow, Bradford, Nottingham, Halton in Cheshire, Peterborough, Leicester, Liverpool, Sunderland and Medway.
According to the report, the hardest places to grow up are spread across the country, with all regions of England represented in the 25 bottom local authorities.
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Meanwhile, the ten best places for children are Cheshire East, Merton, Surrey, Richmond upon Thames, Hertfordshire, Cheshire West and Chester, Haringey, Leicestershire, Central Bedfordshire and Wokingham.
However, Dame Rachel is expected to say in a speech on Monday that ‘every single local area in England has work to do to make lives better for their children’.
The Childhood Lottery highlights the significant differences in service delivery for youngsters living in different parts of England.
For example, the median number of days from referral to children and young people’s mental health services was six in Leicester – and 118 in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
In her speech on Monday, the Children’s Commissioner is expected to call on Andy Burnham’s government to end the postcode lottery in life chances.
Describing the statistics as a ‘litany of failure’, she will say: ‘In so many areas of the country, children are being radically failed.’
Burnham’s programme of devolution presents a ‘unique chance to remove the extreme inequality and unfairness’ she has identified, Dame Rachel is expected to say.
She will add: ‘New powers will mean new structures, and therefore new opportunities to think about, listen to, and deliver for children.
‘Local areas must be provided with support from central government to raise standards for children across health, social care, housing and communities, with urgent action where it falls beyond a set level.
‘This needs to be our response to the emergency.’
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