A new report from The Children’s Commissioner has assembled 162 measures of children’s lives, and used this to allocate scores to local authorities to help understand in which areas of the country it is hardest to grow up. The data pulled together in the Childhood Lottery report highlights the scale of challenges faced by children across all areas of the country and all areas of their lives, as well as the stark contrast between some regions.
While every region in England features in the 25 lowest scoring areas, a north south divide exists, with children who live in the north of England more likely to face challenges growing up. Middlesbrough, Hounslow and Bradford score the lowest in the report, where children are being systematically failed. What the Commissioner has seen constitutes a state of emergency for some children.
The Prime Minister has rightly acknowledged that a key failure of policy making over recent decades has been the inability to tackle deep disparities across the country. Part of his answer to that challenge is greater devolution of power to local areas, particularly to combined, or strategic authorities. The report outlines key recommendations which set out how central and regional governments should prioritise children’s outcomes as decision making and power is devolved out of Westminster.
You can read the report here: https://assets.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wpuploads/2026/10/The-Childhood-Lottery-Report.pdf