Widening inequalities for children in the North of England are increasing poverty, costing childrens' lives and billions of pounds, a landmark report on outcomes for young people in the region has warned.
The newly published research, Child of The North, found the pandemic has widened the already significant differences between children growing up in the North and those in the rest of England.
A group of 40 academics found children from the North missed more schooling in lockdown than their peers elsewhere in England, with pupils in the North East and Yorkshire and Humber losing out on four to five times more learning in primary maths compared to areas in the South.
During the pandemic, children in the North were also found to be lonelier than children in the rest of England. A total of 23 per cent of parents in the North reported that their child was 'often' lonely compared to 15 per cent in the rest of the country.
Added to this, children in the North have a 27 per cent chance of living in poverty compared to 20 per cent in the rest of England.
They have a 58 per cent chance of living in a local authority with above average levels of low-income families, compared to 19 per cent in the rest of England.
The Child of the North
Children from the North is more likely to be living with
obesity than a child elsewhere in England.
From: Child of the North report, the Northern Health Science Alliance and the N8 Research Partnership
The authors have put forward a set of recommendations to tackle the inequalities at the root so that the Government's levelling up plans can benefit them.
This includes increasing child benefit by £10 per child per week, increasing the child element in Universal Credit and increasing child tax credits.
"This new report illustrates in no uncertain terms that without significant, properly-funded measures to tackle the entrenched inequalities experienced by children in the North of England, from birth, there will be no levelling up in the country," Hannah Davies, Health Inequalities lead for the Northern Health Science Alliance and report co-author said.
"Children growing up in the North of England get a bad deal," Professor of Public Health and Policy at the University of Liverpool and co-lead author of the report David Taylor Robinson added.
"Due to poverty and lack of investment, their outcomes are worse across the board - from risk of death in childhood, to obesity, mental health, and education, and the pandemic has made the situation worse.
"The stark inequalities exposed in our report are preventable and unfair. Levelling up must begin with better policies for children."