Overview
- The Children’s Commissioner published The Childhood Lottery on Monday, an interactive dataset and map that combines more than 160 measures and almost 100 metrics to compare every English local authority.
- 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 and Surrey among the easiest.
- It highlights concrete service gaps, including mental-health waits where median time to a second contact ranged from six days in Leicester to 118 days in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, and notes more than one million active referrals in 2024–25.
- Dame Rachel de Souza called the findings evidence that the 'postcode lottery is real' and recommended deputy mayors for children, a children’s emergency fund and devolution-linked support to lift minimum standards.
- Local leaders have pushed back, with Middlesbrough’s mayor writing to Prime Minister Andy Burnham warning of reputational harm and inviting a joint, structured response as councils press for targeted funding and central engagement.