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Inquiry into North East 'inequalities'

Many public services across the North East are performing well below the English average, according to a new report.

The report from the Commission on Public Sector Reform in the North East, set up by the Institute of Public Policy North (ippr north), says that despite “some notable improvements”, the region has still not caught up with results from other regions because it started out from “a low base”.

Results in education show that in 1997, the North East was 7.6% behind the national average for the number of pupils achieving 5 A*-C grades, but is now 0.9% above it. Yet in health, while life expectancy rose for both men and women by three to four years between 1991 and 2007, people in the North East still live nearly one and a half years less than the national average.

Sir George Russell, Chair of the Commission, said: “The quandary we want to get to the bottom of is why, despite the North East having highly-performing public services, many outcomes across health, education, and welfare to work still lag behind other regions, and more importantly if more local, more personalised services will allow us to make significant improvements in the future.”

The Commission is now calling for evidence from people who use public services, public service providers from all sectors, community organisations and research and advocacy organisations in the region.

The evidence is being gathered to consider whether more local and more personalised public services could be more effective at tackling the North East’s problems.

To find out more about how to help with the Commission’s research, contact Duncan Hiscock at d.hiscock@ippr.org or on 0191 211 2628.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .