An important independent report into the challenges facing schools in the north of England was released without fanfare by the government last week.

It was a shame that ministers slipped out Sir Nick Weller's authoritative report on the day of the bombshell autumn statement on the UK's alarming finances, because his worrying findings deserved a wider audience.

The report finds only 70 per cent of secondary schools in the North are rated good or outstanding, compared to 81 per cent in the south and only 34 per cent of disadvantaged pupils receive five or more good GSCEs, compared to 48 per cent in London. This isn’t good enough and is worrying sign that we are falling behind in terms of education.

Here in Furness we are blessed by highly-dedicated teachers and a community willing on our children to succeed. Yet we do your young people a disservice if we ignore the entrenched problems and low achievement in the area.

The latest figures show only 56.6 per cent of our students getting five good GSCEs at age 16, a few percentage points below the national average.

That is a situation which has persisted for decades. What is really worrying is how far behind the average we are in terms of university admissions, with only one in five Barrow students going on to university compared with a national average of one in three.

Of course, there are more routes to success than university; in particular, Furness employers offer many top class apprenticeships which offer young people a great future.

But low numbers of local people getting a degree-level qualification is a real problem, not least for many of the firms who do offer apprenticeships. They need more highly-skilled graduates too and privately tell me they are alarmed by examples of local school leavers turning down offers from top universities in favour of an apprenticeship.

There are also specific concerns that have been raised with me about the impact that proposed changes in the High Needs budget will mean for schools in Cumbria, with cuts hitting our area particularly hard despite our increased need for funding. I am looking forward to hearing more from local heads about that tomorrow.

Local schools and our new merged further education colleges are working incredibly hard to close the gap.

But a well-educated and properly skilled population is our collective responsibility, it doesn't just fall to teachers.

It is high time we all did more to support them in the drive to raise standards. Certainly, the national government must recognise the ways in which it is letting down our schools and change its approach. The problem areas set out in Sir Nick's report would be a good start: we need extra support to recruit and retain teachers, tackle problems that tend to see young children starting school with less developed basic skills and provide more funding for pupils with special educational needs.

The solutions proposed are promising, such as a new Teach North programme to attract the very best teachers to challenging schools in the north and make sure they are supported to stay there.

The report also makes clear that central government needs to up its game listening to schools about the examination system which is causing teachers grave concern.

But this is not just something for the government to fix. We must come together as a local community to take the matter into our own hands.