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Londoners reap benefits of a decade of progress in health and education
Sophie Goodchild19 May 2009
Some of London's most deprived areas have made huge strides in improving the lives of their residents over the past decade, a report claims today.
The snapshot of the capital in 2009 shows significant improvements in education, health and social mobility. Despite being the most socially unequal region in England, London is seeing less poverty among groups such as single mothers.
The report was carried out by the City Parochial Foundation, a charitable trust, and the New Policy Institute think tank. It shows improvement in:
* Education: outer boroughs have the highest proportion in England of pupils passing five GCSEs — in Newham 90 per cent now get five, a rise of seven per cent.
* Teenage pregnancy: rates in half of London's boroughs, including Tower Hamlets, Redbridge and Newham, are equal or below the national average of 7.7 in every 1,000 girls aged 13-15.
* Health: workers in 24 boroughs are less likely to develop problems than the national average of 14 per cent, with the figure in Lambeth and Wandsworth being 11 per cent.
Tony Travers, director of the Greater London Group at the LSE, said: “Inner London seems to have enjoyed significant benefits from the recent boom, and it is clear it will be well placed to benefit from the green shoots of recovery.”
The independent report says the progress is encouraging but warns there are still “unrelieved” pockets of deprivation. Bharat Mehta, chief executive of the City Parochial Foundation, urged the Government to prioritise to ensure London meets its goal of eliminating child poverty by 2020.
He said: “Although the capital is one of the richest cities in the world it also faces daunting problems. We need urgent action on housing, employment and low pay. We need the Government, Mayor, our local councils and the wider public and voluntary sectors to work together.”
The capital has the country's greatest gap between rich and poor with poverty growing in outer boroughs such as Enfield and Dagenham.
He has given me a reason to aim even higher'
Winie Akadjo discovered she was pregnant at 15. She was a promising student at Maria Fidelis Convent School, in Euston, and wanted to go to university to study journalism.
“It was a hard time,” said the 17-yearold. “As soon as word got out I was isolated by my friends, gossiped about and ignored. My family were really disappointed in me and everyone said I would be a fool to keep the baby.”
Winnie, who is from Finchley, decided to keep her baby and returned to school for her GCSEs when her son, Tyrone, was three months old. “When I look at him I know I made the right choice,” she said. “I'm not saying it's easy but he hasn't stopped me wanting to reach my potential — if anything he has given me even more of a reason to aim high.”
Winnie has passed four GCSEs and enrolled at City of Westminster College to study Media, with Tyrone still just two and a half. Her studies have been made possible thanks to the Care to Learn scheme which funds her childcare and travel.
“It's true there are more teen pregnancies in inner London than anywhere else in the country. But it's important for me to point out that having a baby when you're young does not mean you're fit for the scrap heap,” she said.
It wasn't the way i wanted to live'
Ashley Cumberbatch was 13 when he was expelled from school for setting off a fire extinguisher in his teacher's face. His parents were divorced and his older brother in jail so he turned to the gangs on his Peckham estate for help.
“They fed me, clothed me and watched my back,” he said. “But they also got me in a lot of trouble and I knew it was not the way I wanted to live my life.”
A friend told him about Kid's Company, a south London charity which mentors young people from deprived areas. Ashley, 19, enrolled in the programme's Urban Academy and is in the middle of a personal training course which will give him a gym instructor qualification.
In the past two years he has run the London and the Madrid marathons and aims to conquer New York next year. “I didn't have the best start in life and I wasn't given the best opportunities,” he said. “But now I plan to go back to college to do my GCSEs. Too many kids with backgrounds like mine let it consume them. There is help out there and without education you are nothing.”
