Money needed to aid social mobility

A council leader has said more investment is needed in the East Midlands.

Mr Roger Blaney, leader of Newark and Sherwood District Council, was speaking in response to a report that ranked the district near the foot of the social mobility league table.

The Government’s State Of The Nation document put Newark and Sherwood 323rd out of 324 local authority areas based on factors such as education outcomes, employability and housing prospects.

It highlighted education as a particular concern.

The district council’s economic development committee discussed the document.

Mr Blaney said the East Midlands as a region received less public funding than most other regions in the UK.

“If you don’t spend money on your citizens, you shouldn’t be surprised by the outcomes you get,” he said.

“Reports like this can be misleading, but the important thing is to press home the fact that the East Midlands needs more investment.”

Mr Blaney, a Conservative, called for funding to be better and more fairly distributed.

He said he had taken up the issue with the MP for Newark, Mr Robert Jenrick, who was appointed Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury in the recent Government reshuffle.

“I am hopeful we will see a shift in Government funding to make sure the East Midlands is no longer the Cinderella of regional funding,” Mr Blaney said.

Committee member Mr Paul Peacock (Lab) said he looked forward to seeing what the council could do to support greater aspiration and was critical of the impact of what he described as years of Government cuts on council services.

He said: “It [the report] painted Newark and Sherwood in a bad light and it is good that we have put a report together just outlining some of the things we are doing at the moment, and there’s lots more we can do.”

Mr Peacock said a lot of local authorities could no longer afford smaller projects they had provided in the past and the district council should look at what it could do with other partners to raise levels of social mobility.

He was critical of comments by Mr Jenrick, who said in response to the report that aspiration levels in the district needed to rise and its ranking was affected by the former coalfield communities of Ollerton, Edwinstowe and Clipstone.

'Jobs which are low-skilled and low-paid'

Opposition spokesman Mr David Staples (Lab) said he did not think the district council should take the Government’s document as a criticism of the council.

He said more could be done to improve education services, especially for adults, and to improve the jobs market for university graduates.

“If your children leave for university, they don’t come back again as the jobs are elsewhere,” he said.

“We tend to have jobs [in the district] which are low-skilled and low-paid.”

Mr Staples said the current Government should consider re-introducing bursaries for trainee nurses and cited the success of a nursing scheme that was once offered at the Dukeries Academy, Ollerton, but had now stopped.

l According to the State Of The Nation report, in Newark and Sherwood, 43% of children within the key indicator for deprivation ­— eligibility for free school meals — achieved a good level of development in their early years education. The national average is 52%.

Fewer than a third (29%) reached the expected standard at the end of primary or junior school, compared with 57% of all pupils in the district.

A total of 16% of pupils eligible for free school meals did not stay in education or training after secondary education, with 20% going into sixth-forms and 59% further education.

The report said the East Midlands was the worst-performing region in the country when it came to social mobility for those in early years education and at school; and Newark and Sherwood was the worst-performing district in the region.