White working class children in Newcastle have the worst life opportunities in England, new research has found.
Newcastle Central and West ranks bottom out of 543 constituencies in England in terms of outcomes for white British young people who are eligible for free school meals (FSM), according to the Sutton Trust.
The charity’s findings come a year after it published an Opportunity Index, which also ranked the constituency bottom of its social mobility table based on how FSM-eligible secondary school children progress through their exam results, access to higher education, employment, and earnings.
Its latest research focuses specifically on the life chances of white British pupils and the results for Newcastle make for similarly grim reading.
A Sutton Trust report found that the percentage of white FSM pupils in sustained employment, apprenticeship or education after the age of 16 is just 35% in Newcastle Central and West – a huge 47 percentage points lower than the top-performing area.
It also found that someone growing up in the London constituency of Kensington and Bayswater has over 75% higher attainment and earns over 50% more a year at 28 than someone who grew up in Newcastle Central and West.
The analysis found that the average annual earnings for a white FSM pupil in Newcastle Central and West by age 28 is just £13,734 and only 6% will complete a degree by age 22.
Neighbouring Newcastle East and Wallsend also ranks in the bottom 20 constituencies.
However, the North East as a whole is actually the top ranked region for attainment for white working class youngsters.
Chi Onwurah comment
Dame Chi Onwurah, the Labour MP for Newcastle Central and West, called the report “very distressing”.
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service:
“I grew up in Newcastle, on a council estate, in a single parent family on benefits and thanks to the opportunities I had, I became an engineer and an MP. But years of Tory austerity and neglect have reduced those opportunities and when over 40% of children in Newcastle are growing up in poverty, it affects their life chances.”
Dame Chi said the Government was “working to restore the kind of social mobility I enjoyed” through measures such as scrapping the two-child benefit cap, access to 30 hours’ free childcare, and school breakfast clubs.
She added: “Labour has strengthened workers’ rights to drive more stable, secure employment and I am working with the government to attract investment and new industries to our region, such as in the North East AI Growth Zone, so that there are more opportunities for good jobs. The government’s recent announcement of a Jobs Guarantee for young people will impact 2,500 young people in our region.
“Young people in Newcastle have enormous talent and potential, the same as those in London. Our job is to make sure they have the opportunities to match.”
Additional statistics in the survey
The Sutton Trust research also found major differences in social mobility among different ethnicities. Just 8% of white British and Black Caribbean adults who had been eligible for free school meals go on to become top earners, compared to 19% of Indian and 20% of other Asian people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
While those from Bangladeshi backgrounds attain 5% above average at GCSE level, their future earnings are 12% below the national average.
It also showed significant gender disparities. White British FSM boys perform 40% below the average pupil in school, but go on to earn 15% below.
But White British girls attain 30% below the school average and earn 41% below the national average later in life.
And while white working class men earn 17% less than working class Indian men, that figure jumps to 35% when comparing women.
The Sutton Trust is calling on the Government to boost funding for schools in deprived areas and intervene to tackle persistent school absences, particularly among the most disadvantaged students.
Nick Harrison, CEO of the Sutton Trust, said: “White working class young people continue to face some of the biggest barriers to education success in England, with many falling behind long before they leave school. And for too many young people hard work and academic success are still no guarantee of equal opportunity.
“Some disadvantaged groups, particularly working class girls, and many ethnic minorities, dramatically outperform at school, only to see those gains disappear in the labour market. That should concern anyone who believes Britain is a meritocracy.
“Talent exists in every community, but the routes to success are massively uneven. We need to start by doubling down on focusing education support in the most left-behind communities, targeting those most in need. And we also need to look long and hard at biases in the labour market which are still blocking success for many of those who beat the odds and do well at school.”
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