Half of Yorkshire’s five-year-old pupils show worrying behaviour

The Marmot Review has published a report today measuring children’s performance at school, unemployment among young people, the number of benefit claimants and the life expectancy among people living in every council area of the country.

It shows that 44 per cent of pupils in their first year at school in the region are judged by their teachers not to be reaching a good level of development – based on their behaviour and understanding – slightly lower than the national average.

Hull had the worst results in Yorkshire with 49.9 per cent not making good progress while Kirklees had the region’s best results with only 38.3 per cent not showing a good level of development.

Nationally, Solihull in the West Midlands had the best results with almost seven in 10 youngsters – 69.3 per cent – considered to be reaching a good level of development, while in Richmond upon Thames the figure was 68.8 per cent.

In other parts of the country, however, children are also lagging behind.

In Haringey, north London, which is considered to be one of the most disadvantaged areas of England, just 41.9 per cent of five-year-olds have a good level of development.

The figures were released to mark the first anniversary of the Marmot Review, an independent study into health inequalities across the UK which was commissioned by the Labour Government to identify problem areas and possible solutions, chaired by Professor Sir Michael Marmot, the director of the International Institute for Society and Health and a professor in Epidemiology at University College London (UCL).

Its anniversary report highlights inequalities in the lives of the poorest and most affluent people in each council area of the country. It shows performance at school, life chances and life expectancy are all affected by people’s background.

In Yorkshire there is a 10-year difference between the average life expectancy of the most and least affluent men and a seven-year gap between the most and least well off women. The overall life expectancy for men in Yorkshire is 77 years of age while women are expected to live until they are 81.

The report also highlights major disparities between different parts of the region. York has the longest life expectancy with men on average living until they are 79 and women living until they are 83. This contrasts with Hull which has the lowest life expectancy with men on average living until they are 75 and women living until they are 80.

Hull also has the highest level of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET). More than one-in-ten young people in the city are classed as NEET, according to the report, compared with a Yorkshire figure of 8.3 per cent and a national average of seven per cent.

Sir Michael said: “Health inequalities are a tragic waste of life and health and cost this country tens of billions of pounds every year in lost productivity, welfare payments and costs to the NHS from ill health. The evidence is very clear: investing in pre-school years pays most dividends.

“We already know that by the age of 10 a child from a poorer background will have lost any advantage of intelligence indicated at 22 months, whereas a child from an affluent family will have improved his or her cognitive scores purely because of his or her advantaged background.”