Overview
- The Childhood Lottery, published in Westminster on Monday, provides an interactive map and dataset that scores every English local authority using more than 160 measures and nearly 100 metrics covering health, education, housing, safety and children’s voice.
- The report names Middlesbrough, Hounslow, Bradford, Nottingham, Halton, Peterborough, Leicester, Liverpool, Sunderland and Medway among the hardest places to grow up and lists Cheshire East, Merton, Surrey and Richmond upon Thames among the least challenging.
- The dataset highlights stark service gaps that drive unequal childhoods, for example median time from mental-health referral to second contact was six days in Leicester versus 118 days in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
- Dame Rachel recommends a children’s emergency fund, appointing deputy mayors for children in strategic areas, and centrally supported minimum standards, and she says her final project will survey one million young people to gather their views.
- Local leaders welcomed attention to need but warned public labelling could harm morale; Middlesbrough’s mayor has written to the prime minister asking for structured engagement and coordinated resources in response to the findings.