More must be done to end an 'enduring lack of opportunity' for young people say experts

The best opportunities for high qualifications and professional well-paid jobs remain in London and the surrounding area according to a major new report.

It highlights 'stark' regional divides which impact young people living in parts of Staffordshire and Cheshire, including the former mining industrial areas, as well as wider rural and coastal areas.

The state of the nation report highlighted these areas as having the lowest opportunities among 203 local authorities analysed.

Daniel Flynn, Chief Executive at YMCA North Staffs in Stoke-on-Trent said: "I think there needs to be a National Skills Strategy, there needs to be looking at how do you create social mobility. People go oh, government are nanny state, no, what the governments job is is to invest in the future of young people and recognise there's a massive group who haven't got middle class parents and that we need support.

"If your choice is do I heat or eat, if your choice is can I afford to buy shoes, if your choice is I can't get to school because the bus has stopped.. you haven't got a choice have you? I think it all falls back to financial inequality. All the cuts that young people have experienced in the last 14 years."

The research, by the Social Mobility Commission (SMC), concluded that young people growing up in these areas tend to end up with lower qualifications and lower pay.

They are more likely to end up in what it described as working-class jobs than young people from the same socio-economic background who grew up in parts of the country with better social mobility, the report said.

Social mobility is defined by the commission as the link between a person's occupation or income and that of their parents, moving up or down through the generations.

The report found areas in our region among the worst in the country for social mobility

Daniel Flynn from YMCA North Staffs said: "Ask yourself why young people are really disengaged, ask yourself why suicide is through the roof, why smoking is on the up not the down. Why aren't you investing in young people?

"If you look at Manchester, Liverpool, it's great isn't it. Night time economy fantastic. So you can't talk about social mobility unless you talk about economic performance of certain areas. I'm sad to say Stoke-on-Trent is really bad. So for social mobility to happen you need a bit of spare income."

The report said good transport links to big cities appear to be key to better social mobility, with areas around Manchester and Birmingham, having better opportunities for young people.

The findings expose the "highly unequal" landscape for young people depending on where they grow up and an "enduring lack of opportunity" in some areas, Oxford University sociology professor Anthony Heath said.

Lee Elliot Major, social mobility professor at the University of Exeter, said the divide is "much more than a simple north-south split: it is about London and the South East versus the rest".

The commission's chairman, Alun Francis, said there needs to be a focus on helping young people stuck in "left-behind places" with few opportunities.

In the foreword to the report, he said: "There are now several challenges in the UK which frame our social mobility problem, one of which includes insufficient attention to regional disparities and 'left behind' people and places. This is critical and needs urgent attention."

Of the solutions, he said: "There is no one-size-fits-all approach to improving opportunities, as each place has its own particular challenges.

"A common theme is economic opportunity and the quality of jobs across the country, but there are also deeply entrenched issues around educational underperformance among families and communities which are more acute in some places than others."

The commission has urged ministers to use approaches which are specific to a local area and its needs.

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