Half of children leave reception unready for school – report
Children from deprived areas more likely to fall short, potentially impeding their progress throughout life, says expert
Children from more deprived areas are more likely than those from affluent families to fall short of the developmental and educational milestones set down by the Department for Education, according to an overview from Sir Michael Marmot’s Institute of Health Equity at University College London. These include being able to listen to stories, pay attention, use the toilet and dress themselves, and having started to read, write and do simple sums.
All the evidence shows children who struggle in primary school are less likely to do well later on.
“We continue to fail our children,” said Marmot. “How can this still be happening? For three years the Institute of Health Equity has published evidence showing we are failing our children. It is unacceptable that only half of our five-year-olds are achieving a good level of development.”
Two years ago, 59% of children were meeting the goals at the end of the reception year, but that figure cannot be compared to the 52% today because the government has changed the measure – and has also said that collecting the data will no longer be mandatory. That, said Marmot, is not the answer.
“We need real action to improve the lives of families, support good parenting and improve access to good quality affordable early years services. The evidence is clear; we have to get it right at the start if individuals are to achieve the best possible health throughout their life.”
Only just over a third – 36% – of children who get free school meals because of a low family income reach the targets. Closing Sure Start children’s centres, which were set up to help families in deprived areas, is “not a good way to improve early childhood development”, said Marmot.
The UK scores badly on children’s development compared with the other wealthy nations of the world, he said. In 2007, Unicef put the UK at the bottom of 21 developed countries for child wellbeing, judged on measures throughout childhood and adolescence, including infant deaths, teenage pregnancy and young people out of education, employment and training.
The UCL Institute has been tracking progress in England since 2010, when the Marmot review of the yawning gap between the health of the richest and poorest was published.
That review said that to stay healthy, people need enough money to be able to afford essentials such as a nutritious diet, adequate clothing and enough money to heat the home.
The latest data shows the numbers of people unable to meet those basic needs has increased by a fifth between 2008/9 and 2011/12, from 3.8m to 4.7m households. Across the country, 23% of households do not have enough money to ensure they stay in good health, and in London, that rises to 29.4%.
Little has changed in life expectancy, the latest update shows, although the gap between richest and poorest has narrowed slightly. Marmot expressed concern, however, over the years of healthy life people can expect – 64.1 years for women and 63.4 years for men. Only the top third will continue to be healthy into retirement, when the age rises to 68, he said.
Having a job is good for health, and unemployment has dropped since 2011, says the institute. But the nature of the work is also significant.
The institute has now included a measure of people reporting illness caused by work. The numbers dropped from 4,260 per 100,000 in 2009/10 to 3,640 in 2011/12, which it says is encouraging. But there has been no drop in the number who say their work has made them stressed, depressed or anxious.
In general, health is poorest in the north of England, where the determinants, including jobs and income, are worse. The institute is publishing results for every local authority in England online.
Marmot says he is “completely apolitical” and would not criticise specific governments over health inequalities. But he said he had been reading the French economist Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the 21st Century. “It seems to me wherever you are on the political spectrum, we should be looking at this huge contraction of capital and income and thinking this is not good for our society,” Marmot said.
“If we want a healthy economy, a healthy population, a fair society, a population with lower crime, we ought to be very concerned.”
