'Hardest Place to Grow Up' Label Rejected in Middlesbrough: From Mayor to Teachers, Residents Say Their Children Are Joyful

Middlesbrough has been named the hardest place to grow up in England in a report by the children's commissioner. But the town's residents are refusing to accept that label. From the mayor to youth workers and teachers, many say such rankings are disappointing, demoralising and do not show the full picture of reality.

In the report titled The Childhood Lottery, published this week, children's commissioner Rachel de Souza described childhood as being in a state of emergency. The report brought together 162 measures of children's lives into one landmark dataset — covering everything from child poverty to exclusion rates and poor air quality. At the very bottom of that list came Middlesbrough.

Speaking to the Guardian after the report, people who work with the town's children and young people reacted plainly. One youth worker called it disappointing — just another kicking. A teacher said the label suggests their children are living unhappy lives, while she described her own pupils as full of joy.

The anger of Middlesbrough mayor Chris Cooke was not hidden either. People from outside keep telling them what they are, he said — but they know what they are, and there is another side. Cooke himself grew up in a violent family; his father took his own life when he was a teenager and his mother's mental health spiralled. After periods away from school, he ended up in care. Drawing on that experience, he said that during his hard times it would not have helped if someone had told him his life was difficult or would get harder.

A different picture emerged at a busy youth club in the Coulby Newham area. There, children aged 10 and above were making Halloween decorations, cooking, playing table tennis and getting ready to play dodgeball outside. Hannah, 15, said her life was good — she loves living in Middlesbrough, loves Albert Park and the Dorman Museum, and loves going to football and coming to the youth club to make friends. Asked whether being a child in Middlesbrough is hard, one boy looked confused and said he would be there the rest of his life — why would he leave?

Wayne Mason, a former soldier who is chief executive of the Linx Youth Project, which runs the club, said the report attaches yet another label to Middlesbrough and its young people — and they already have many labels. The project's deputy, Eilis Sexton, worried about the message for young people who want to start their own families, knowing their child would have the most difficult upbringing in the country. It is quite demoralising, she said.

Neither Mason nor Sexton disputed the statistics. Their point was that pride is the overriding thing they see among young people. Many youngsters living in some of the most deprived areas of Middlesbrough do not want to leave, because this is their home. Mason said everyone talks about deprivation, poverty and crime — but nobody talks about community.

The report comes weeks after a collision on the A66 in which a car carrying five young people crashed into a police car carrying two constables, killing the occupants of both vehicles. Some subsequent media portrayals painted the town as a gang-run dystopia, which residents say is different from reality.

In the town centre there is a large open square and the contemporary art gallery Mima, currently hosting the Turner Prize. At Newport primary school there is a particularly well-stocked, well-used library — Middlesbrough's reading-for-pleasure figures are well above the national average. Headteacher Patricia Maxwell said the report told her nothing she did not already know, but it also did not tell people about all the positives their children grow up with. Deputy head Stacey Carlisle said their children are joyous and joyful; some may face challenges at home, but the same is true in affluent areas.

Another part of the context is spending on social care. Middlesbrough is one of 16 councils in England that spend more than 80 percent of their core funding on social care. Mayor Cooke spoke of his passion for spending on youth services, listing initiatives including a fund to ensure there are youth clubs in every Middlesbrough postcode. He said that as a young apprentice applicant he was once told not to include his home postcode for fear of being judged — he not only included it, he made it bigger.

Overall, residents of the town placed at the bottom of the statistical table say they do not deny the indicators of crisis; but a whole generation's childhood cannot be explained by a single label. Alongside poverty, they insist, Middlesbrough's story equally contains pride, community and the effort to come back.