Surrey has been named the best English county in which to raise children, thanks to its low crime rate, good standard of education, and the lowest deprivation level of any region in the country.

Almost 95pc of schools in Surrey are rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, and only 15 out of every 1,000 people in the county are affected by crime each year.

Surrey also enjoys the highest rate of disposable income across England; an an average £26,844 a year after tax and household bills.

Cheshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire also ranked among the top 10 places to raise children in England, in a study published by Witter Towbars.

It rated each region based on factors including the cost of a three-bedroom house, the average annual disposable income, the number of child-friendly activities available, the percentage of schools listed as good or outstanding, and other considerations such as the average time children spent outdoors.

It explains:  “The study, undertaken by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a club of the world’s 34 richest countries, has attempted to rank all of its members on different scales for 11 key categories, such as health, crime, education, housing, governance.

“The index reported that Britain “performs very well in overall wellbeing”, ranking among the top countries for wealth, environment, good governance and community spirit.

“But it highlights black spots like child poverty — where progress has “stalled” and figures are predicted to increase — and obesity, where the UK has the highest rates in Europe. If all the eleven measures are given an equal weighting Britain comes 13th out of 34, behind Australia, Canada and Sweden as the best places to live.”

I had a thoughtful response to my story about fishing communities last week on how valuable it would be to have an effective means of measuring the impact of social interventions on quality of life issues. You may all recall recent work by Richard Layrad to form a Happiness Movement.

Those with long memories may recall I offered the view at the time that there was much in this stream of thinking which could be used to help with the debate about a rigorous process for measuring the impact  of the role of public services in communities on broader well-being.

I am thinking of reviewing the current literature across the piece on such things and if you are interested I would like to hear from you.