Where are children most in need of levelling up?

The current government was elected on the promise that ‘every child should have the same opportunity to express their talents and make the most of their lives.’ Every government wants to improve children’s lives. For this government, that means children need to be central to the government’s priority of levelling up.

Across the UK, the quality of children’s lives is too strongly influenced by where they are born. The government knows that and isn’t short of data or measures that give a clear picture of the barriers children face to fulfilling their potential.

Whether that is data collected by Public Health England, through the Improving Lives Strategy, or by the Children’s Commissioner’s Office there are broadly three types of information used to understand children’s lives:

• Their underlying circumstances – such as how many children are in poverty, workless households, or who experience domestic violence.
• The services available to them – such as the availability of family hubs, school quality, or provision of youth work and family support.
• Their outcomes – such as school readiness or GCSE attainment.

To guide its approach to levelling up, the government should set clear measures from across those three types of information.  We think three specific measures would be a good place to start.

First, the government should look at how focused children’s services are on early intervention. The government’s guidance on how policy should protect vulnerable children is that ‘providing early help is more effective in promoting the welfare of children than reacting later.’

Research suggests that is true financially as well as for the children involved. Cutting early intervention spending by £1 results in an increase in spending on late intervention of £1.05.

Despite that, since 2010 spending on early intervention children’s services in England has nearly halved. On average, local authorities now spend £163 per child on early intervention, while 92 of 152 areas spend less than that.

If the government levelled up spending on early intervention – to £163 per child – that would mean an additional £420 million a year spent on family hubs, youth services, and family support.

Second, the government should focus on the effectiveness of early years provision. The best predictor of school outcomes is how well a child has done earlier on in their education and development.

Currently, young children’s development is measured by whether they have reached a ‘Good Level of Development’ or are ‘school ready’. That measure has been shown to be a good indicator of achievement later in life.

In England, on average 72% of children reach a Good Level of Development at the end of reception – meaning they are “school ready”. It is less than that in 81 local authorities.

If the government levelled up school readiness – to the current national average of 72% of children aged 5 across the country – that would mean an additional 8,000 5 year old children being ready for school every year.

Third, government should look at the underlying factors that act as barriers to children fulfilling their potential. There is strong evidence that poverty, or growing up in a low-income household, has an independent impact on children’s outcomes.

Looking at the government’s preferred measure of poverty – absolute poverty before housing costs - 20% of children under 16 in England were in poverty in 2020. That is over 2 million children. In total, 60 of 152 local authorities have child poverty rates above average. It’s worth noting that hugely undercounts the number of children growing up in low-income households which is better measured using relative poverty after housing costs.

If the government levelled up those areas – reducing child poverty to a maximum of 20% everywhere – that would mean 300,000 fewer children living in absolute poverty.

Taking those three measures together shows that some areas of the country are more in need of levelling up for children than others. We ranked each local authority by how far children are in need of levelling up by each factor. The authorities with the highest rank across each factor were:

Those three measures are not only a useful guide for where is most in need of levelling up, they can directly targeted by government policy. We think three things would help:

1. Boost spending on early intervention services. Planned investment in Family Hubs, Supporting Families, and youth services is a step in the right direction. The government should now commit to rolling out family hubs across the country.
2. Ensure all new parents get the support they need. Government policy for young children is overwhelmingly focused on childcare provision. However, too many new parents struggle to get the parenting support they need. The government should make parenting support services a part of the core offer in family hubs.
3. Tackle child poverty. The pandemic has highlighted how many families struggle to make ends meet. The government should commit to a new child poverty strategy, including reviewing how the social security system can best be used to lift children out of poverty.

Success would have a huge impact for children. Across those three measures, levelling up would mean £420 million a year spent on services like youth work and family hubs 8,000 more 5 year olds a year who were deemed ‘school ready’ and 300,000 fewer children struggling against the effects of growing up in a low-income household.