Middlesbrough, Hounslow and Bradford are named England's hardest places for children as commissioner prepares to declare a 'state of emergency'

Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children's Commissioner, is set on Monday to call the findings a 'litany of failure', warning that children are being 'radically failed'. She is expected to press Andy Burnham's government to end the geographic inequality in children's life chances. Her report, 'The Childhood Lottery', rates every English council across almost 100 measures. The bottom ten include Nottingham, Halton, Peterborough, Leicester, Liverpool, Sunderland and Medway.

Waits for child mental health care run six days in Leicester and 118 in Hampshire.

A third of children are not ready for school when they turn five.

Cheshire East, Merton and Surrey rank as the easiest places to grow up.