Rossendale Ranked as a Social Mobility Hotspot

Rossendale has been ranked in the national top 20% of socially mobile places to grow up and live, coming 57^th out of all 324 local authority areas.

Rossendale was one of only five North West Council in the top 20%, with four of the five North West Council’s coming from Lancashire (Trafford, Fylde, Ribble Valley, Rossendale and Wyre).

The Social Mobility Index compares the chances that a child from a disadvantaged background will do well at school and get a good job in each of the 324 local authority district council areas of England. It examines a range of measures of the educational outcomes achieved by young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and the local job and housing markers to shed light on which are the best and worst places in England in terms of the opportunities young people from poorer backgrounds have to succeed.

The index uses a suite of indicators that are related to the chances of experiencing upward social mobility, focusing on two types of outcome; one is educational attainment of those from poorer backgrounds and the second is outcomes achieved by adults in the area.

Cllr Barbara Ashworth, Portfolio Holder for Health welcomed the report’s findings saying;

“This is fantastic news, it shows that Rossendale is a great place to live and that children growing up here have really positive future prospects. To be one of the highest achieving areas in Lancashire , let alone the North West, really is a credit to Rossendale.”

In the ranking of local areas conditional on area deprivation, excluding London, Rossendale ranked 5^th in the top performing 10%.  

Rossendale’s best ranking was seen in Early Years Social Mobility Indicators we it came 18^th in the top performers ranking, the best in Lancashire and 2^nd best in the whole of the North West. Indeed, in this ranking, Rossendale was the only Lancashire authority to appear in the best performers lists and was one of only three North West authorities.