Labour supporters may be ignorant.

Thinking of past posts of your Jen I didn't think you lived in an area like Tiger Bay , you must have loved the carnivals etc.

There are carnivals all over the U.K. you don’t have to live in Cardiff to enjoy it.

The NHS today is nothing like the NHS which existed in the 1950’s, not only are intolerable burdens placed upon it by sheer population nunbers but by all the specialist help it now offers.
Less people in the UK then and less available treatments available then.Stop comparing, it’s silly.

The carnivals in Tiger Bay were so different in the fifties and sixties to the carnivals in the rest if the country.

Only time one could see and hear steel bands and see all those colourful national costumes .

My mother compared, lemon. She was a nurse before the |NHS and was so pleased that it had arrived, as her dad died in 1939 because they couldn't afford medication for him.
Going back to that now, people dying because they can't afford medication.

I wasn't talking about carnivals, Annie. I was talking about everyday living, playing in playstreets after school.

We are talking about now versus the 1950’s durhamjen
Nothing to do with before the NHS.

So there are more people in the UK now lemongrove therefore there are more people paying tax, people are also richer (there's always someone harping on about how bad things used to be) so people are paying more tax. There should be much more money available to the NHS. So the demands upon it should be met. They are not being. Why? Because there isn't the will to do so. There is no other logical reason.

And NHS hospitals being closed all over the place.

Weird, isn't it?

And of course we all know that the Tory Government manages the economy sooooo much better than a labour government ever could, so there should be plenty of cash slashing around for the NHS

Lemon, my mother was a nurse in 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, retiring in 1982.
Does that cover it?

Was your mother a nurse and run a boarding house Jen?

Yes, Annie, and my dad was a busdriver, and they still had to apply for clothing grants for my school uniform.

Poor woman must have been exhausted, two exhausting jobs , thank you Jen

I don't think anyone where I grew up earned very much at all and I don't think anyone knew they could have applied for a grant for school uniform - no-one I knew did that.

You live and learn.

Same here Jalima, although I think I'm a bit younger than some of those posting about this. In the deep dark depths of my memory I think I remember something about pupils who got free school meals might have got other help, but even at quite a young age I could tell those pupils came from poor homes. I do remember my Mum telling me that I should always be kind to them and not make fun of them. Even after I started working for social security as a school leaver my Mum continued to reminded me not to look down on others less fortunate. The strange thing is that looking back, I now know we were at the top end of the less fortunate league and that makes me appreciate even more how much she did for us children. It makes me emotional to not have realised this until late in life.

Jalima1108 how would you know if someone applied for or received a school niform grant? They wouldn't have told you. I certainly had one.

trisher another glimmer of a memory makes me ask if grants were always received in time for the start of the school year? When I moved to secondary school in England at 14, I seem to remember a girl in my class who was given items of uniform from the stock of 2nd hand items given to the school by parents. She had to make do with what was available size wise. I don't think this was a one off occasion either, so maybe grant policy was down to the LEA?

I Googled this because I wasn't sure and generally it seems to be part of the 1944 Butler Education Act, which covered a lot of social provision for children. Of course we have no idea if people were actually told what they were entitled to.

The Act required LEAs to:

make provision for medical inspections in schools and colleges (48);
provide 'milk, meals and other refreshment for pupils in attendance at schools and colleges maintained by them' (49);
offer boarding accommodation where appropriate (50);
make clothing grants (51);
recover the costs of boarding and clothing where parents could afford to pay (52);
provide 'adequate facilities for recreation and social and physical training' (53);
ensure the cleanliness of 'the persons and clothing of pupils' in schools and colleges (54);
provide transport for pupils where necessary (55);
make 'special arrangements' in 'extraordinary circumstances' for children to be educated 'otherwise than at school' (56); and
arrange for the medical examination of a child considered 'incapable of receiving education at school' (57

Thanks trisher. It makes me wonder if the policy in my area at the time was not to pay the grant until the pupil started at the school. This has been bringing back dim memories of conversations (probably overheard) about grants not coming through in time. It was quite noticeable when the girl in my class appeared in a better fitting uniform a few weeks after the start of term.

The medical inspections bit went on well into the 60s and 70s. When I went to Teacher training college we had to have a chest x-ray and medical examination- fear of TB was still widespread.

Of course we have no idea if people were actually told what they were entitled to.

Certainly I think we would have been told if grants were available and DM's friends may have mentioned it - but I know it was a struggle to buy school uniforms as they had to be purchased from a firm in Leicester at premium prices. Some items such as the dreadful gym kit or summer dresses could be made at home and blouses purchased locally but blazers, hats, gymslips etc had to come from the approved supplier.

may have mentioned it if that was the case

provide transport - not that either - it was bicycle in the summer and public transport (fares paid by parents) in the winter.
School was several miles away.

We were hard up but there was a girl in my class who came from a very poor home and I can remember her telling me that her mother was very upset about the cost of school uniform but managed to buy some second hand for her. There was obviously no mention of help.