What were we trying to do?
The N8 is a collaboration between 8 universities in the North of England: Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York. The Child of the North project is a collaboration between the N8 and Health Equity North (part of the NHSA). 

 

Put simply, the overall aim of this project was to improve the lives of all children living in England, but especially in the North, where health and social inequalities are worse, meaning children are being disadvantaged. 

 

Many N8 group members are experts in research around children and childhood. This report helped to connect up their knowledge with relevant policymakers to encourage the use of available research evidence to improve policies relating to children across the country.

 

Why was this important?
Children suffered greatly from the COVID-19 pandemic, with impacts on their physical and mental health, their education, and uneven effects on disadvantaged and ethnic minority children. These difficulties were felt nationwide, but were more pronounced in the North where inequalities already existed.

 

To avoid a ‘lost generation’ of children who are not able to meet their potential, we needed to find ways to bring research evidence to policymakers so that all policies that are created or amended meet the immediate needs of children across the country.

 

How did we do it?
The Child of the North team took the following actions to meet its aims:

 

• Creating a stronger focus on using research evidence to achieve the maximum impact for children living in the North and across England.
• Building on the group’s strengths to make further progress in addressing complex and deep-rooted issues that affect children.
• Co-producing evidence and publications with children, practitioners and policymakers.
• Forming partnerships with other organisations that are ‘champions’ in improving the lives of children and young people
• Leading a campaign for a ‘Children First Government’ which includes practical ways the government can improve its future vision for children and young people. 
• Established the Child of the North All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) bringing together key organisations and MPs to develop policy solutions to create lasting change. 

 

Findings
Key findings from ‘The Child of the North: Building a fairer future after COVID-19’ include:

 

• A child in the North has a 27% chance of living in poverty compared to 20% in the rest of England.
• Compared to children in England overall, a northern child is more likely to die under the age of 1.
• Northern children are more likely to be living with obesity than in other parts of England.
• There is a 58% chance of a child in the North living in a local authority that has above average numbers of low-income families – compared to 19% in the rest of England. 
• Children in the north received less offline schoolwork per day during the pandemic – only 14% received four or more pieces of work per day, compared to 20% in England as a whole. 
• 23% of parents of northern children reported their child was lonely during the pandemic compared to 15% countrywide. 
• Parents and carers of children were also more likely to be lonely – 23% in the North compared to 13% in the rest of England. 
• Before the pandemic, spending on Sure Start children’s centres in the North was cut by an average of £412 per child compared to £283 in other parts of England. 
• Children in the North are more likely to be in care than in the rest of England – 21 out of 26 local authorities with more than 100 children per 100,000 in care are in the North. 
• More than 20% of children in the North are from an ethnic minority and these children are more likely to live in a deprived area than ethnic minority children in the rest of England. 
• The mental health conditions developed by children in the North during the pandemic will cost over £13 billion over their working lives due to lost earnings. 

 

 

Resources

View all of the Child of the North reports.

 

Who did we work with?
•    Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA)
•    N8 Research Partnership
•    NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria
•    NIHR ARC North West Coast
•    NIHR ARC Yorkshire and Humber
•    NIHR School for Public Health Research
•    UK Prevention Research Partnership Collaboration
•    ActEarly
•    Medical Research Council

 

Funding information
This work was funded by the Northern Health Science Alliance (part-funded by Research England, and the N8 Research Partnership, academics from the Northern NIHR Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) North East and North Cumbria [reference NIHR200173], Greater Manchester [reference NIHR200174], North West Coast [reference NIHR200182], Yorkshire and Humber [reference NIHR200166]) and the NIHR School of Public Health Research [reference PD-SPH-2015], UK Prevention Research Partnership Collaboration, ActEarly [reference MR/ S037527/1] and the Medical Research Council (MRC) [reference MR/ P008577/1].

 

 

More information

 

Senior Programme Lead
Mike Spence
mike.spence@healthinnovationmanchester.com