Better off?

Children from disadvantaged backgrounds can lag up to 12 months behind their more privileged peers in cognitive development by the age of three and be far less ready for school, says a recent a UK-wide study. The challenge facing Gordon Brown in combating child poverty is underlined by the second survey of the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) tracking nearly 16,000 children born between 2000 and 2002. It shows a gulf by the age of three between the children of the best-educated, most prosperous parents, and those living in poverty whose parents have no qualifications. Children classified in the first MCS...