Northern Powerhouse
Devolving further power and control to the North Devolving further control to regions of the North could have a transformational effect, writes Henri Murison, director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership Five years on from the Northern Powerhouse Fighting for a rebalancing of political decision being first born as an idea, it is worth making in our most centralised of country, remembering it is a shared project of it sits alongside the annual Convention Labour-led northern city regions and a of the North, bringing together the local former Conservative Chancellor. Ideas from government leaders and wider organisations Manchester-born and leading economist and groups which make up the North. Lord Jim O’Neill, the then chief executive in Our latest report, Next Steps for the Manchester, Howard Bernstein, and a number Northern Powerhouse, sets out bold and of other key thinkers, all of whom had in challenging proposals on education, common that they were committed devolution and transport, for how we to economic rebalancing can realise this ambition and deliver through decentralisation an economy that works for T and productivity focused all. This ambition will not be local auhe t investment. To drive our achieved without confronting h o of the N rities places, change peoples’ the key areas in which the o Powerh rthern lives for the better – North lags behind the the historic mission rest of the country – the started ouse have to decid of local government low performance of a e the significant fate of throughout our history. proportion of t ranspor The Northern its children, most notably t here in Powerhouse Partnership at age 16, compared to the North (NPP) exists to defend the rest of the country and and deliver the project to resulting skills gap, which close the North–South divide leaves employers without a for good. A board of business suitable skilled workforce to address leaders and key civic leaders from both sides a modern, changing world of work. of the Pennines, along with Dame Nancy Throughout the UK, there is a widely Rothwell, president and vice chancellor acknowledged disadvantage gap in of the University of Manchester and John educational achievement levels of children Cridland, chair of Transport for the North, from poorer backgrounds compared to their England’s first sub-national transport project. peers. The previous coalition government
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introduced Pupil Premium, but the disparities highlighted in our Educating the North report between disadvantaged children in the Northern Powerhouse and London suggest this policy hasn’t tackled the scale of the specific issues affecting many of our schools, and academisation in the North has lacked enough suitable sponsors, the successful academy chains like the Co-operative Academies only able to take so many schools, for instance. Previous work by Education Datalab has shown that the length of time a pupil is eligible for Pupil Premium has a much greater impact on attainment than having been eligible for free school meals at some point during their school career. The scale of the gap in performance between even those who are eligible for free school meals overall, and those that receive them every year of their education because of their economic background, is stark. Two out of every three of the secondary schools with the very highest proportions of these learners which also fall in the ethnicity groups with lower progress currently nationally are in the Northern Powerhouse. As research from Bristol University has shown, these schools facing greater challenges under performance measures like Progress 8 are treated inequitably, and we need to recognise that current reality of some schools with highly concentrated numbers of the
