Anne Longfield: Opportunity for all children must be at the heart of North's strategy

There are 3.6m children growing up in the North and every one of them should have the brightest future possible and best opportunities to look forward to happy, healthy and prosperous lives, wherever they live. Nobody would disagree with that. But for too long, not enough has been done to make it a reality.

That’s why I believe it’s so important that children are part of the “Northern Powerhouse” regeneration debate currently underway – and why I have launched the year-long Growing Up North project, beginning with today’s first regional summit in Hull.

Just as in recent years Liverpool has used the opportunity of being awarded European City of Culture status to boost regeneration and re-define itself, Hull is using its UK City of Culture status in 2017 as a chance to celebrate its past, while also looking to the future.

Like other towns and cities in Yorkshire, Hull is at a turning point – with the opportunities that come with greater devolution there to be grasped.

Yet the statistics tell us that for many children, there is a North-South divide which acts as a barrier to success.

For example, some parts of Northern England have the best primary schools in the country, but the lowest adult employment rate. Some areas have high numbers of children going to universities but lower household disposable incomes than anywhere south of the M4.

We need to ask ourselves why a young person leaving school or college in London or the South East is more likely to go to a top university compared to a young person from the North. Or why – as George Osborne pointed out in his report on education in the North last week – do 30,000 graduates leave the North each year?

And how is it that in 2015, a pupil from a disadvantaged background was 41 per cent more likely to get five A*-Cs in London than in the North of England?

So the experts on the Growing up North panel, which includes people from right across our region, will look at the evidence of what happens between childhood and adulthood to shape our children’s future lives. That will help us to understand what makes an area a great place to grow up and identify where children are excelling, and where they are being left behind.

We will visit schools, businesses, universities and workplaces, listening to people’s experiences and expectations. We want to look at ways in which children’s ambitions in Yorkshire and the rest of the North are shaped by the communities in which they grow up.

We also have to understand and to look at the opportunities available to young people between and within different parts of the region. How do young people make the choices they do when they are planning for their future? How are those choices different in Otley, Hull, Rotherham, or Stockport, Halifax or the Wirral?

We know that local areas can provide opportunities to children in many different ways. Sports and hobbies allow children to develop their interests and confidence, economic and cultural access give children experience and industrial and professional openings, as well as transport connections, enable young people to enter 
the workforce. I will look at 
how these vary across different areas too.

Many urban areas will soon have regional governments headed by directly-elected mayors, or are in the process of putting this leadership structure in place. These mayors will have much greater powers than existing local government to shape and define their areas. This provides a perfect opportunity to develop new strategies for regeneration and I want to put children at the heart of this agenda so that we have regeneration which delivers and meets the needs and expectations of children.

I’m a proud Northerner. Although I’ve spent many years working in the South, I now live close to where I was brought up. I believe this is the North of England’s once in a generation moment, and I want all children in the North of England to have the same opportunities as those in Southern England.

If we can start to understand why children do better in some parts of the country than others and what it is about the place they grow up in that supports them to succeed, we can begin to bridge the North-South divide that has been there for too long.

Anne Longfield OBE is Children’s Commissioner for England.