Peterborough better than Cambridge and Fenland for social mobility says new report

Data released by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission has Peterborough ranked 191st out of 324 local authorities.

This puts it ahead of Cambridge (275th), East Northamptonshire (296th) and Fenland (319th) which are referred to as social mobility ‘coldspots’.

The social mobility index compares the chances that a child from a disadvantaged background will do well at school and get a good job across each of the 324 local authority district areas of England.

It examines a range of social mobility indicators covering the educational outcomes of disadvantaged young people - in the early years, at school and college and in higher education - and opportunities in local job and housing markets to identify the best and worst places in England in terms of the opportunities young people from poorer backgrounds have to succeed.

The commission is an advisory non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Education, the Cabinet Office and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Its chairman is the former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn.

The index shows that so-called social mobility hotspots are dominated by London boroughs and councils in the South East.

Mr Milburn said: “The social mobility index uncovers a new geography of disadvantage in England. It lays bare the local lottery in social mobility.

“It gets beneath the surface of a crude north-south divide and calls into question some of the conventional wisdom about where disadvantage is now located.

“It is shocking that many of the richest areas of the country are the ones failing their poorest children the most.

“This report is a wake-up call for educators and employers as well as policy-makers, both local and national.

“If social mobility is to take off, much more will need to be done if there is to be a level playing field of opportunity in our country.

“The gulf between the ambition of a one nation Britain and today’s reality of a divided Britain is far too wide.

“I hope the government will put itself at the head of a new national drive to ensure that, in future, progress in life depends on aptitude and ability, not background and birth - on where people aspire to get to, not where they have come from. This report suggests that is long overdue.”

To view the report, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-mobility-index.