BRADFORD school leavers are more likely to be in education than work five years after completing their GCSEs, new figures show.

New figures from the Department for Education show what Bradford school leavers are up to after finishing compulsory education.

For those who finished year 11 at a mainstream state school in 2017, 45.6 per cent were continuing their education five years later, while 26 per cent were in work.

Across England, 43.2 per cent of leavers were in sustained education at this point, with 33 per cent in work.

Sir Peter Lampl, founder of the Sutton Trust charity, said youngsters have faced a "challenging environment" in recent years, struggling with disruption during the pandemic, "patchy" mental health support and the cost of living crisis.

He added: "Today, the attainment gap between the most and least well-off youngsters remains the highest it has been for a decade.

"It's time political leaders faced up to these challenges by making education a national priority, as did the Blair Government with its 'Education, Education, Education', and setting out a national plan to close the attainment gap."