The Starmer government today (10 May) chose the North East as the location of one of two “missions” to launch the start of the fightback against its humiliating defeats by Reform UK in last week’s council elections.
The new education missions are intended to open doors for children in the most under-served communities, said the Department for Education (DfE).
Thousands of children in deprived areas would benefit from targeted support that would transform their life chances through the two pioneering programmes – one in the North East and the other in the disadvantaged coastal towns of Scarborough and Hastings.
Mission North East and Mission Coastal would bring expert support into classrooms and new opportunities beyond the school gates from September for children in these areas where, said the DfE, too many young people have been held back for too long, with persistently low exam results.
The programmes were announced by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, MP for Houghton and Sunderland South – part of a city that voted last week reject its Labour council in favour of a Reform administration. The “landmark programmes” would transform children’s lives, said the Department – giving the most disadvantaged children the mentoring, careers support, and enrichment opportunities they needed to achieve and thrive.
The North East has the lowest exam results of any region in England at 1.9 points below the national average of 46.0 in Attainment 8.
Generational injustice
Across the country, said the DfE, disadvantaged White British pupils were being consistently let down, scoring 30.9 against 48.6 for their better-off peers. That was a generational injustice which these missions would change. Expert practitioners would work directly with leaders and teachers, building teacher capacity and raising standards. Schools would work together in local clusters, learning from each other rather than tackling challenges alone.
Beyond the school gates, new partnerships with employers, sports clubs, faith groups and youth organisations would provide vital mentoring, careers support and cultural enrichment – the building blocks of a full childhood.
Bridget Phillipson said:
”I grew up in the North East and know the challenges families face. I want every child there, and in coastal communities like Hastings and Scarborough, to have the same opportunities I was lucky enough to have. For too long, children living in these areas have grown up without the opportunities that they need and deserve to be able to achieve and thrive. That is not a matter of ability. It is a matter of justice. Mission North East and Mission Coastal are our commitment to change that postcode lottery for good.”
Designed with a Test, Learn and Grow approach, the programmes would identify what works quickly and feed those lessons back into national policy, said the DfE – so the missions would benefit not just local communities, but similar communities across the country.
*This report is based on a press release from the Department for Education
