Tutor Trust are thrilled to be acknowledged in the Children’s Commissioner’s report, ‘Growing up North: A generation of children await the powerhouse promise’. This major report was released yesterday by Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England.

Tutor Trust now serves three major cities in the North (Greater Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool) and we have also been praised in two other recent reports: the 2017 ‘State of the Nation’ report from the Social Mobility Commission and the ‘Educating the North’ report from the Northern Powerhouse Partnership in February 2018.

Anne Longfield’s report is based on twelve months of research and is designed to increase understanding of children’s attitudes, aspirations and expectations. It also looks at the progress of children, up until early adulthood, and assesses the opportunities for children growing up in the North provided by the Northern Powerhouse.  The report has a particular focus on disadvantaged children and compares and contrasts the opportunities available to children in London and those growing up in the North.

Referring to Tutor Trust, the Commissioner’s report states:

“The Tutor Trust, which works in Leeds and Greater Manchester, places trained university students into schools to deliver one-to-one support for pupils who need a bit of extra help. Started in 2012, last year they worked individually with 4,000 pupils.”

This figure of 4,000 pupils is taken from our 2017 Impact Report, which showcases the fantastic work that our tutors have done to raise pupils’ attainment and aspirations across Greater Manchester and Leeds. The report can be read here.

While the report highlights the Tutor Trust and other organisations that have had a real impact on children’s lives in the North, such as our partners SHINE Trust and Teach First, there is still a disproportionate number of children living in disadvantaged communities in the North and these children are not doing as well at school as similar children in London.

To tackle this, the report demands a commitment to change and gives nine recommendations on how to do this.

1. Children’s prospects should be placed at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse and given the same attention as economic regeneration
2. Government should provide additional investment in the most disadvantaged areas to support local councils and partners to improve children’s outcomes and life chances – this should start in the North
3. Extra support for families to give their children the best start in life
4. Earlier identification of special educational needs should be a public health priority
5. A new northern schools programme should be established to improve leadership and governance, boost recruitment and dramatically improve children’s attainment in the most disadvantaged areas
6. Reform the role of Regional Schools Commissioner
7. Northern areas need to stop children dropping out of education early
8. Local Enterprise Partnerships need to expand their programmes to bring employers and schools together to widen children’s horizons and open up job prospects
9. Arts, culture and sports bodies should prioritise funding for children with disadvantaged backgrounds

Anne Longfield, in her introduction to this report, states that she feels it is time “to use Northern grown solutions to ensure a more prosperous future for all children.” This is exactly what the Tutor Trust is and what it will continue to work towards.

The ‘Growing up North’ report from the Children’s Commissioner can be found on their website: https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/publication/growing-up-north-a-generation-of-children-await-the-powerhouse-promise/