Greater Expectations by the National Children’s Bureau finds that the number of children living in poverty today has risen by 1.5 million since the NCB carried out its study Born to fail?, in 1969.
The new report says that ‘unequal childhoods’ are now a permanent feature of British life.
It concludes that, ‘Today, although there have been some improvements, overall the situation appears to be no better, and in some respects has got worse.’
NCB is calling for the setting up of a Government board with ministers tasked to develop and implement a strategy to reduce inequality and disadvantage. It also recommends that the Office for Budget Responsibility should assess and report on the impact that each Budget has on child poverty and inequality.
The new report finds that the number of children in poverty has ‘substantially increased’ from 2 million in 1969 to 3.5 million today.
It uses 12 key indicators to determine whether children in the UK continue to experience inequality and disadvantage.
Poverty continues to affect many children’s circumstances, with one in 14 children living in overcrowded conditions and children from disadvantaged backgrounds more likely to be accidentally injured in the home.
Children in the most deprived areas are much less likely than those living in the least deprived to have access to green space, places to play and live in environments with better air quality.
In children’s early years a child from a disadvantaged poor background is still far less likely to achieve a good level of development at the age of four, and go on to do well in their GCSEs at 16, compared to a child from a well-off family.
Boys living in deprived areas are three times more likely to be obese, and girls twice as likely, than their better-off peers.
Two of the indicators look at the number of children in early education and the proportion of four-year-olds that achieve a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage.
In 1969, the report found that one in seven, or 14 per cent of children, had attended a day nursery or playgroup, compared to one in five of their more advantaged peers.
Today, 96 per cent of three-and- four-year-olds in England have some form of early education and the report says this has remained at a stable level for the last five years.
The report says, this significant increase ‘reflects a growing understanding of the long-term benefits of good quality early education, and in particular, the previous Government’s decision to invest in free early years services for children and families and the commitment by the current Government to two-year-olds.’
But it adds that while nearly two-thirds of all four-year-olds achieve ‘a good level of development’, only around half (48 per cent) of children on free school meals achieve this level.
Dr Hilary Emery, chief executive of the NCB, said, ‘Our analysis shows that despite some improvements, the inequality and disadvantage suffered by poorer children 50 years ago still persists today. There is a real risk that as a nation we are sleep walking into a world where children grow up in a state of social apartheid, with poor children destined to experience hardship and disadvantage just by accident of birth, and their more affluent peers unaware of their existence.
‘All our children should have the opportunity to fulfill their potential regardless of their circumstances. We cannot afford to let them grow up in such an unequal "them and us" society in which the talents of the next generation are wasted, leaving them cut adrift to become a costly burden to the economy rather than a productive asset.’
