The geographic pattern of underperformance at primary level is relatively well distributed around England, with no strong regional clustering at local authority level. The East Midlands has the weakest access to good or outstanding schools, with 73 per cent of local authorities having more than the average share of pupils attending underperforming schools. This is followed closely behind by the South West and Yorkshire and the Humber, with 72 per cent and 71 per cent respectively.
At the other end of the spectrum, fewer than one in ten local authorities in London and North East have an above average share of pupils in underperforming schools. This means there are much fewer places in good primary schools for children in the East Midlands, South West or Yorkshire and the Humber than their peers in London. The relative strong performance of the North East and West is worth noting, given that we see a very different picture at secondary level.
