Using local areas data to improve the lives of disadvantaged children and families

Because economic and social opportunities are unevenly distributed across England, the places in which children and young people are born and grow up can have significant influences on both their current well-being and their future life chances. Data now available confirms the expected finding that the level of child well-being found in an area tends to reflect its overall level of disadvantage. However, there are a number of exceptions to this general rule – local areas where child well-being is either significantly better or worse than would be expected given the levels of advantage which exist there. Some of the possible explanations for these exceptions are considered, using additional data available from the mapping of children's services, particularly in relation to the provision of child and adolescent mental health services. It is argued that continued analysis of these different streams of data as they develop and mature over the coming years had an important role to play in assisting policy-makers, service providers and local people, working collaboratively, to promote the well-being of disadvantaged children and young people.