Beyond the school gates: developing children's zones for England

As other chapters in this volume attest, there is substantial evidence that a wide range of outcomes for children and young people – most notably, educational outcomes – are strongly related to social background (Cassen and Kingdon 2007, DCSF 2009). Equally important from a policy perspective is that social and educational disadvantage are spatially distributed (Lupton 2006). In other words, children growing up in different places have different chances of encountering disadvantaging factors in their lives. In some places, these factors appear in high concentrations, meaning that children’s chances of doing well are substantially lower than they are in other, more advantaged places. As a result, while children can experience disadvantage wherever they live – and policy must remain alert to this – there is nonetheless a strong rationale for focusing particular attention on places where disadvantage is most concentrated.