The Children of the North Report, which has been released earlier this week, has highlighted the issues faced by children from the North of England.

The report showed the gap between the different regions of England, with respect to child healthcare, education and poverty line status has increased in a post-pandemic world.

It outlined how these children are more disadvantaged than children from across the rest of the country, with certain recommendations on how to reduce this disparity in the future.

The ‘Child Of The North: Building a Fairer Future after COVID-19’ report has been published by the Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSAI) with the partnership of some of the leading universities – including Leeds, Lancaster, Durham, Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, York and Sheffield and NHS Hospital Trusts with the N8 Research Partnership.

The 18 recommendations made in order to bridge the gap between the North and the South in this subject include-welfare investment by the Government, health and social care systems including children charities that support children’s health, the introduction of free school meals, and working on residential care systems for the underprivileged amongst others.

Professor Karen Broadhurst of the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University said: ”It’s a really important report because it’s the first report to bring together a lot of different evidence for children in the north on a range of different issues; education, early years, health, community care, diversity.”

According to her, a lump sum of money is needed as an investment in order to start bridging the inequality gap between the north and the south of England.

Statistics show about 30 percent of children living in the north were at risk of living in poverty compared to the remaining 20 percent of England.

The main issue underlined within the report is how poverty is impacting the children, which in turn is taking a toll on other facets of their life, such as education and health care.