Town’s toddlers ‘have slowest development in the country’

VAST MAJORITY OF TWO-YEAR-OLDS FAIL TESTS

TODDLERS in Rochdale are developing less quickly than anywhere else in the country, according to the latest government figures.

Since 2015, every child in England has been eligible for a development review around their second birthday under the Healthy Child Programme.

These focus on five indicators of early childhood development - communication, gross motor skills, problem solving skills and personal-social skills.

But the most recent Public Health England (PHE) statistics show that only 26 per cent of the two to two-and-a-half-year-olds assessed in Rochdale between July and September last year were at or above the expected level in all areas.

The figures – provided to PHE by councils – are thrown into stark relief when compared to the national and north west region figures, which come in at 84 and 86 per cent respectively.

In Greater Manchester, Bury is the second worst performing borough during the second quarter of 2018/19 – but well ahead of Rochdale, with 58pc of toddlers at or above the expected level of development.

By contrast, Tameside tops the city region table for the same period, with 95pc of toddlers achieving the benchmarks.

Rochdale’s figures are also significantly down on the first quarter of 2018/19 (April to June) during which 50 pc hit the expected levels.

Rochdale council’s cabinet member for children’s services said the authority was aware it was behind the national average in terms of ‘school-readiness’ and had taken ‘tremendous steps’ to improve over the last 12 months.

However he said the biggest challenge after the health visitor tests was following up on children who may ‘slip through the net.’ “If they are not attending nursery, who is taking them to the health centre to make sure they get the help and attention they need?” he said. “Legally, children don’t have to start school until they’re five, there are not many that do that, but these are children we need to be involved with.” Quarter Two was the sixth reporting period since responsibility for the public health of children aged up to five was from transferred from the NHS to councils. Coun Heakin says Rochdale council is now ‘getting on to’ linking health and education systems to better address the issue. “We are quite active with it and hoping we will make a difference to those scores in a few years time,” he said. “There are lots of things to overcome, we are trying our best, it’s a big area and hopefully we we will make improvements.”