Children and Young People – Section 1

Population of children and young people

Total number of Children and Young People:

Children and young people make up almost a quarter of Barnet’s total population and, in numerical terms, Barnet has the second largest population of children and young people in London, with, in 2008, almost 84,000 children age 0 - 19.

When ethnic groups are broken down by age, a markedly different age structure emerges between groups. Under 20’s account for 40% of residents with Black African origin and 55% of residents with ‘Black Other’ origin compared to accounting for just under 21.6% of the White population and just over 25% of the population overall.

Barnet’s younger population is therefore much more diverse than the population overall and while the majority are White there are higher proportions of children in many minority ethnic groups when compared with the White population. For example, Black Africans represent 8.7% of the under 20 population compared with 5.4% of the overall population. Census data confirms that Black African school age children more than doubled between 1991 and 2001, from 1,228 in 1991 to 2,827 in 2001.

Birth dataRecent birth data shows a significant increase in children born over the last few years. There was a 22% increase in live births from 2002 to 2007. This increasing birth rate will impact on the services provided by local partners, particularly schools and health services.

Births to mothers living in Barnet (Data source – ONS)

YearLive

Births1998 42271999 42112000 41302001 40632002 41802003 43342004 44822005 47282006 48352007 51202008

School census data – ethnicity

Languages Spoken by the School PopulationThe 2008 school census recorded that 177 different languages apart from English were spoken by pupils in Barnet schools. The most common languages other than English are shown below:

Language Number of pupils speakingGujarati 1837Persian/Farsi 1141Somali 1135Arabic 971Urdu 815Polish 746Source – School Census

Bullying / hate crime broader community safety issues,

Last year, 1,128 young people (under 19) were recorded as victims of crime. For crimes where the victim is under 18, the most common offences are street crime (robbery from the person and snatch) and violent crime (ABH and common assault).

Bullying both in and outside of school is a concern commonly raised by Barnet children and young people taking part in consultation exercises or activities. Consultation with pupils in Summer 2008 (Tellus3 Survey) suggests that 11% had been bullied in school in the previous four weeks, below the national average of 15%. This is an improvement compared with Summer 2007 where 23% had been bullied and 30% nationally. Below are the number of racial incidents and homophobic incidents in schools.

Young People not in education, employment of training as at September 2008