A big well done to all students in the city who received their A-level and GCSE results this week. I do hope you got the grades you wanted. Congratulations to both you and your teachers for pulling out all the stops and working creatively and with dedication through the challenges of the pandemic.

We know children and young people’s physical health has been less affected than other age groups by coronavirus, but we also know they have been disproportionately impacted by its social, educational and economic effects. There is evidence that financial hardship and academic pressures have increased for the young.

Worryingly, we heard this week that the divide between private schools and state schools in achieving top A-level results has widened considerably this year.

The increase in grades is 50 per cent higher among private pupils than their state school peers, according to analysis of government data. The Sutton Trust said disparities in remote learning opportunities and changes in assessment during the pandemic have hit those from the poorest backgrounds harder.

To our shame, there are an estimated 4.3 million children and young people living in poverty in the UK, that’s 31 per cent of all UK children – a huge increase during the Conservatives time in office.

I am very concerned about the “slow burn” impacts of educational and employment constraints, and the role the pandemic is playing in widening the gap between rich and poor even further.

Unsurprisingly, there are also signs the upheaval in children’s lives is having an impact on their mental health. The Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2020 report is the official stocktake of the state of our children’s wellbeing. It found one in six children aged five to 16 had a probable mental health disorder, up from one in nine three years previously.

So, what needs to be done to help reduce this evident risk to our children’s future? Firstly, cash-strapped state schools and councils must be given adequate funding. We also need extra training and support for teachers, and funding to allow some students to repeat their final year if it was badly affected by the pandemic.

The National Audit Office published a report in March 2021 analysing the Department for Education’s response to the crisis and warned the Government that “it is crucial that the department now takes swift and effective action, including to learn wider lessons from its Covid-19 response, and to ensure that the catch-up learning programme is effective and reaches the children who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, such as those who are vulnerable and disadvantaged”.

The government offered pupils extra hours of tuition under post-pandemic catch-up plans and immediately faced criticism that the £1.4 billion allocated was about a tenth of the £15 billion recommended by Sir Kevan Collins, the Education Recovery Commissioner appointed by Downing Street to lead efforts to make up for the damage done by the pandemic, particularly to pupils from more deprived backgrounds. Sir Kevan later resigned and in his letter to the Prime Minister, warned he did not believe it was “credible that a successful recovery can be achieved with a programme of support of this size”.

Secondly, we need more children and young people’s mental health workers linked to our schools.

In January this year the former Children’s Commissioner for England Anne Longfield said: “The government’s current plan – to roll out NHS-led counselling in schools to 20 to 25 per cent of areas by 2023 – was never ambitious enough.” She called for more collaboration with existing voluntary sector provision to help roll this out faster. This would have provided greater capacity and flexibility – something which has been needed more this year than ever.

I know headteachers in the city have appreciated the expertise of primary mental health workers who have been working in secondary schools and more recently in primaries too. But they are clear there are just not enough trained staff to meet the mental health needs they see every day.

It’s also clear that in the months and years ahead children and young people, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, are going to need more support with education and mental health than is currently being offered. Brighton and Hove Labour councillors are committed to campaigning for more support for children and their families and to ending the attainment gap for the disadvantaged, but what we need is a government that recognises how vital it is to invest properly and quickly in the young, who are the future.

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