CHILDREN living in the North of England face worse health and educational outcomes following the pandemic than youngsters elsewhere in the country, a major new report has warned.
The wide-ranging research, titled Child of the North, highlights that rising inequality costs the economy in lost potential.
It has come up with a series of recommendations on how to narrow the gap and improve the lives and futures of millions of children in the North East.
The research shows that children in the North have a 27 per cent chance of living in poverty compared to 20 per cent in the rest of England.
Prior to the pandemic, the North saw much larger cuts to spending on Sure Start children’s centres – on average, spending was cut by £412 per eligible child in the North, compared to only £283 in the rest of England.
And pupils missed more schooling in lockdown than their peers elsewhere in England, losing four to five times more learning in primary maths compared to areas in the South.
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The study estimated the…
