The Black Country towns and cities which are among the 20 worst areas for levels of child poverty – report

The Centre for Social Justice's report reveals the West Midlands has the highest rate of child poverty in the UK at 38 per cent.

In the 20 Sandwell was fourth, Walsall ninth and Wolverhampton tenth.

Birmingham is also listed in the 20 and coming out of the pandemic, nearly one in five young people in the city were out of work – much higher than the then national average of 13.5 per cent.

On a key measure of child poverty, entitlement to free school meals, the region does badly – with a rate of nearly 27 per cent compared to the national average of 23 per cent.

A New Deal for Young People in the West Midlands suggests that the region is being let down by local and central government.

It is based on detailed research among local firms and charities to identify challenges but also successful interventions that could be rolled out more widely to address the issues.

The report has been supported by the Rigby Foundation, the charitable enterprise of the Rigby family, owners of Rigby Group, a family business based in Stratford-upon-Avon.

The report warns that young people are held back by low aspiration and lack social and communication skills. Social mobility is stagnant, and generations of families are unemployed.

The report also highlights how children in the West Midlands, on average, missed the most amount of school between March 2020 and March 2021. This unenviable record continues into attainment for the West Midlands with fewer people staying in education or employment after completing Key Stage 4 and lower than average grades marked as A or A*.

The report makes it clear that this poor performance in the West Midlands goes beyond education. It points to how “there is also a higher proportion of adults working in lower-paid occupations, and higher rates of economic inactivity and unemployment among working-age adults.”

Birmingham is ranked the seventh most deprived local authority in England.

Only one in five adults in the region say there are good job opportunities for young people leaving school compared to one in four across the UK. Only a quarter (26 per cent) of 18 to 21-year-olds in the West Midlands agreed that disadvantaged young people had the support they needed to succeed.

The report argues that young people are the key to turbocharging the region’s prosperity, and they urgently need a new deal for education, employment and skills to unlock their potential.  Ahead of the General Election on July 4, it calls on central and local government to work with local philanthropists, employers and businesses to create a brighter future.

Sophia Worringer, deputy policy director at the Centre for Social Justice, said:  “Raising the economic and social prosperity of Birmingham and the West Midlands depends on equipping the next generation with the education, skills and aspiration they need to succeed in work.  The region has so much potential given its uniquely young population, so investing in their future is the key to benefitting us all.

“We have spoken to charities, school leaders and employers who are all seeking to improve the life chances of young people across the West Midlands and Birmingham, and they told of low aspiration; young people lacking social and communication skills; stagnant social mobility difficulty securing their young talent pipeline.  But for all this, young people themselves are much more optimistic.  We are urging government to work with local stakeholders to capitalise on this optimism.”

In the foreword to the report, Steve Rigby, chief executive of the Rigby Group, said: “The question for me is personal. How can we turbocharge the opportunities for young people living right here in the West Midlands, the place where I grew up and where Rigby Group, our family business, has worked for decades?  The scale of the problem is daunting.

“Ambition in our young must be matched with an environment that allows them to prosper locally in well paid roles, so it is clear then that there is a great need in the West Midlands for a new approach to helping the next generation to thrive, and the Rigby Family want to be a part of the solution.”