Rising cost of living in London forces parents to sacrifice their own children’s education

++ Exodus from London as families forced to leave behind England’s best schools in search of better quality of life ++

++ 45% of those leaving London are young families with children ++

++ NSN calls for new proposer groups to level the playing field++

Research by New Schools Network (NSN) has uncovered the number of young families moving away from London for a higher standard of living, and leaving behind the country’s best schools. The ever- increasing cost of living in the capital has seen a net loss of 78,000 people for the year ending 2015, an increase of over 36,000 on the previous year, with young families particularly likely to leave. If recent trends continue then NSN estimates up to 85,000 people, many of them young families, will have left London and the nation’s highest-performing schools behind during 2016.

NSN’s analysis confirms that it is young children and those starting families who are most likely to move. Of the 151,000 people moving out of London boroughs to other areas of the country, 11% were children aged six and under, and 34% were aged 25-39.

This movement is happening despite London’s continued dominance when it comes to education standards: GCSE results were above the national level in nine out of ten inner London boroughs, and over 90% of students attend an Ofsted rated Good or Outstanding school at primary and secondary level.

Those moving out of London, are typically moving to areas where they are having to settle for poorer education standards. Brighton and Hove was the most popular destination, with seven different Inner London boroughs losing families to this part of the country. However, whilst 93% of secondary schools across these boroughs were good or outstanding, only 60% of secondary schools in Brighton and Hove achieve these ratings.

These patterns of migration are not unique to London, however. Other parts of the country which saw significant numbers of new families moving to the area were also areas of low educational performance.

In Devon, which reported the highest levels of incoming residents across the country, 58.1% of students attained five good GCSEs, and 82% achieved expected standards at Key Stage 2. These results significantly lag behind London averages, and has led NSN to call for potential free school founders in these areas to get in touch and help meet the demand for better schools.

Table 1: Local Authorities with the highest levels of outgoing migration and school performance

LA Region Net outgoing residents Attainment Attainment Ofsted (G/O (per 1,000 residents) GCSE KS2 schools) Brent London 24.13 60% 83% 93% Newham London 22.43 59.4% 84% 90% Waltham London 21.59 57.4% 81% 95% Forest Oxford South 19.46 59.7% 81% 87% East Ealing London 18.92 62.2% 83% 94% Hammersmith London 18.85 62.6% 83% 93% & Fulham Haringey London 15.83 54.6% 82% 95% Hounslow London 15.04 65.2% 86% 91% Harrow London 14.81 60.5% 85% 94% Boston East 14.45 56.1% 79% 90% Midlands National Average 53.8% 80% 88%

This pattern can be seen in other popular authorities, rural areas such as East Sussex, Norfolk and Leicestershire. Similarly, these areas all perform significantly below the London level at both Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4. NSN would welcome free school proposer groups in these areas to come forward to level the playing field and work towards improving the quality of education available.

In urban areas outside of London, many of which share similar levels of deprivation, standards are much worse. Despite poor school standards, areas such as Knowsley, Liverpool and Salford actually saw more people arrive than leave over the past year.

Strongly performing schools in London are likely to benefit further from the new national fair funding formula proposals. These will reward schools with high rates of pupil premium, second- language English speakers and high pupil mobility – all more prevalent in London schools than elsewhere.

Toby Young, Director of the New Schools Network, said:

“More and more, the best schools are operating in areas where families cannot afford to live. It is patently unfair that young people who want a better quality of life for their families are being forced to abandon the best schools to achieve it.

“We need more free schools to set up in cities and towns across the country to ensure that parents will be able to access a good school for their children no matter where they choose to live.”

Editor’s Notes

Methodology

- Incoming and Outgoing migration figures were taken from the ONS “Internal migration, England and Wales: Year Ending June 2015” data release https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/migrati onwithintheuk/bulletins/internalmigrationbylocalauthoritiesinenglandandwales/yearendingj une2015#background-notes - Detailed information on age of internal migrants and destination local authorities is taken from the “Internal migration - Detailed estimates dataset by origin and destination local authorities, sex and single year of age” ONS release https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/migrati onwithintheuk/datasets/internalmigrationbyoriginanddestinationlocalauthoritiessexandsingl eyearofagedetailedestimatesdataset - Where detailed data on outgoing migration is given, this is for outgoing migration to England only. - NSN’s estimate for the number of people leaving London in 2016 is based off the average year-on-year growth over the past five years. - The ONS data is held at district and lower-tier local authority level. Where a lower-tier authority exists beneath a higher-tier authority which acts as the Local Education Authority, school performance data at LEA level is given - Ofsted grades are as of August 2016 - GCSE and primary performance data is for 2015 – this is as 2016 data at secondary level is still provisional until January 2017. - Inner London refers to the statutory inner London boroughs - London refers to Greater London - The Home Counties refers to all unitary and district local authorities in Surrey, Kent, East and West Sussex, Hertfordshire, Essex, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire

Free schools

- Free schools are state funded schools that are independent of local authority control. They have the freedom to decide the length of school day and term, their curriculum, teacher pay and how they spend their budgets. - There are over 550 free schools now open or approved to open across England. Once full they will provide over 330,000 new school places. - More than three quarters of free schools that have been inspected have been judged as Good or Outstanding. They are more likely to be judged as Outstanding than other state schools. - New Schools Network is an independent charity that provides support to groups wanting to set up free schools: www.newschoolsnetwork.org