Poorer Wigan children less likely to be school-ready than wealthier ones

It's the same picture nationally and a think tank is warning the figures are "extremely alarming".

At five years old, children's development is tested across 17 early learning goals, which cover skills such as motor functions, communication and language, mathematics, and personal, social and emotional development.

They are designed to determine whether a child is “school-ready” at the end of their reception year.

New Department for Education analysis shows around 1,123 children in Wigan are in the bottom fifth for deprivation across England.

Of these, 49 per cent did not reach the expected development standard across these areas by the end of the 2023-24 academic year.

However, for Wigan children in the wealthiest fifth, this fell to 26 per cent.

Of all children in Wigan, 38 per cent were deemed not ready for school – down from 40 per cent the year before.

Anne Longfield, executive chair of the Centre for Young Lives and a former Children’s Commissioner, said the development gap between disadvantaged children and their peers is extremely alarming.

She added: "This is not only holding back the life chances of many thousands of children, it is bad for our economy, it puts additional strains on schools and teachers, and it is often a warning sign for future school absence and disruption."

She welcomed the Government's focus on improving early years development, including the roll-out of breakfast clubs and new nurseries, but urged ministers to deliver on their pledge.

Purnima Tanuku OBE, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said more must be done to support deprived children.

She added: "Nurseries are more likely to close in areas of deprivation so the Government must look at funding more resources in those places."

Nationally, 42 per cent of the poorest children did not meet the expected standard last year, compared to 25 per cent of the wealthiest quintile.

Across all children, 34 per cent were not ready for school.

Early Education Minister Stephen Morgan said: "It’s simply not good enough that almost a third of children aren’t school-ready at age five.

"Teachers being taken off teaching to manage issues with school-readiness holds back every child’s learning and life chances.

"This Government has inherited an early years system that fails to drive the highest outcomes and tackle inequality, but we have a clear mission to break down barriers to opportunity and ensure tens of thousands more children are school-ready through our Plan for Change.

"We have already started that work: extending early language support, investing £15m to deliver the first phase of school-based nurseries, and improving training and guidance for early educators to better support and assess children with special educational needs."