Hounslow ranked second hardest place in England to grow up in Children's Commissioner report
A national report by the Children's Commissioner put only Middlesbrough below Hounslow and placed the borough last in London. The council has since said that errors in data it supplied badly affected its position.
Hounslow has been named the second hardest place in England for children to grow up, according to a major report published by the Children's Commissioner for England on Monday 19 October.
The report, called The Childhood Lottery, ranked Middlesbrough lowest in the country, with Hounslow second and Bradford third. That makes Hounslow the lowest-ranked area in London.
The report says Hounslow scored 460 out of a possible 960. It also says only 71 per cent of children in the borough have had their childhood vaccinations, a lower rate than in 132 other local authorities.
What the report measures
The Children's Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, launched the report at an event in Westminster on 19 October. It is described as a landmark dataset that brings together 162 measures of children's lives across education, health, community, safety and children's own views of where they live.
Not every measure counts towards the overall scores. Some are there to give background on each area. The measures range from childhood vaccination rates and childhood obesity to school attendance, GCSE results, support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), housing, and whether children feel safe in their neighbourhood.
The Commissioner's office has said the report is not meant to compare how well local authorities are performing. It is meant to show how childhood might be experienced in each part of the country. Dame Rachel has stressed that the report is not a review of any council, but a look at the challenges children face and the services around them.
In the report she wrote that she called it the Childhood Lottery "because of the enormous disparities I have found – both between places and within an area." She has described the state of services for children as a national emergency and called for a national Children's Emergency Fund.
How West London compares
The gap between neighbouring boroughs is wide. Richmond upon Thames, which borders Hounslow, was named one of the least difficult places in England to grow up, along with Merton and Surrey. Ealing was placed slightly above the national average.
The report also shows how much things can vary inside a single borough. Hounslow takes in comfortable neighbourhoods such as parts of Chiswick as well as some of the most deprived communities in West London.
Across England, the report found that 12 per cent of children said they did not feel safe in their local area. It also found that nearly half of children in care are placed outside their home local authority.
What happens next
Dame Rachel's office has said councils and organisations across the country have asked how they can use the data and recommendations to drive change locally. The full report, an evidence annex, the complete dataset and an interactive map are available on the Children's Commissioner's website.
Hounslow Council has since challenged some of the information behind its ranking (see update below). How far that changes the borough's position has not yet been confirmed by the Children's Commissioner.