Kids’ education and employment opportunities ranked by area
GOV.UK. | Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission | 31 January 2016
The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission today (31 January 2016) publishes a major new piece of research, ranking each of the local authorities in England in terms of the social mobility prospects of disadvantaged children in their area. This is the first piece of research to examine social mobility in detail at individual local area level.
The social mobility index maps the new geography of disadvantage. It shows London and its commuter belt pulling away from the rest of the country in terms of social mobility. It also shows many coastal areas – such as Blackpool, Great Yarmouth and Minehead – and industrial towns – like Mansfield and Stoke – are becoming entrenched social mobility cold spots.
Key findings
London and its commuter belt is pulling away from the rest of the country. Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who live in these areas are far more likely to achieve good outcomes in school and have more opportunities to do well as adults than those in the rest of the country.
Coastal areas and industrial towns are becoming real social mobility cold spots. Places like Doncaster, Mansfield, Stoke, Blackpool and Great Yarmouth are performing badly on both educational measures and adulthood outcomes, giving young people from less advantaged backgrounds limited opportunities to get on.
England’s major cities are failing to be the places of opportunity they should be. While London is way ahead no other major cities do well, although there is still a marked difference between cities like Manchester, Birmingham and Southampton (which are about average against the social mobility index) and cities like Nottingham, Derby and Norwich (which perform very badly).
Many of the richest places in England are doing worse than places that are much poorer. While there is undoubtedly a link between the affluence of a local area and the life chances of disadvantaged young people – with richer areas tending to do better against the social mobility index than poorer areas – there are many affluent areas that fail young people from poor backgrounds. Places like Worcester, Oxford, Cambridge, Northampton and Wellingborough do badly.
