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Child poverty is overwhelming teachers & GPs!

(352 Posts)
CvD66 Mon 17-Jun-24 15:57:25

Teachers and GPs are ‘staggering’ under extra demands caused by poverty in Great Britain
This is the headline of today’s Guardian which published a Joseph Rowntree Foundation report stating teachers and GPs in England, Scotland and Wales are informally acting as emergency food providers, welfare advisers, housing officers and social workers alongside their day jobs, as they devote more and more time and resources to support struggling parents and children.
- Primary school staff estimated 48% of their pupils, and primary care staff 57% of their patients, had experienced hardship at some point since the start of the school year or over the past 12 months.
- A third of schools, and nearly half of GP surgeries, had set up food banks to provide emergency food supplies to hungry pupils and families. Staff in schools in deprived areas estimated 44% of pupils had come to school hungry over the past year.
The article also highlights that the Tory manifesto plans to cut £12 bn from benefit spending which many of the families of these children rely on.
Many people will vote for the Tories on July 4th - seeking to achieve what? Yet more child poverty?

zakouma66 Tue 25-Jun-24 17:35:49

Doodledog

Dear God.

To paraphrase Carla Denyer - This is dignified, isn't it?

This thread is absolutely shameful. I wish the election were over and done with. I am appalled at the lack of human kindness on this, and other threads. What has this country become?

There are only a few hateful comments, its easy to think otherwise.

What's that saying.....be careful who you meet on the way up and all that!

Some of these people slagging folk off, maybe glad of their help in years to come.

Doodledog Tue 25-Jun-24 17:28:02

Dear God.

To paraphrase Carla Denyer - This is dignified, isn't it?

This thread is absolutely shameful. I wish the election were over and done with. I am appalled at the lack of human kindness on this, and other threads. What has this country become?

Germanshepherdsmum Tue 25-Jun-24 17:15:39

LizzieDrip

^I am a retired solicitor^

GSM really - you do surprise me!

Not everyone to whom I offer advice knows what. No need to snipe.

zakouma66 Tue 25-Jun-24 17:00:02

Callistemon213

Primrose53

MissAdventure

Breakfast clubs, which are used for many different reasons, charge, foobanks allow six visits (I think)

Only certain foodbanks do that. There are loads of foodbanks like at the Salvation Army where people can go as often as they like. There are also foodbanks at community fridges of which there are many.

Community fridges are a great idea. The food is free, often fresh food just on its sell-by date but perfectly usable plus fresh fruit and vegetables.

Open to everyone regardless of income. The idea is to avoid food waste too.

Yes, we have a simple scheme locally. Food nearly at its sell by date is shared.

Nobody abuses this as far as I can see.

LizzieDrip Tue 25-Jun-24 16:50:40

I am a retired solicitor

GSM really - you do surprise me!

Callistemon213 Tue 25-Jun-24 16:45:53

Primrose53

MissAdventure

Breakfast clubs, which are used for many different reasons, charge, foobanks allow six visits (I think)

Only certain foodbanks do that. There are loads of foodbanks like at the Salvation Army where people can go as often as they like. There are also foodbanks at community fridges of which there are many.

Community fridges are a great idea. The food is free, often fresh food just on its sell-by date but perfectly usable plus fresh fruit and vegetables.

Open to everyone regardless of income. The idea is to avoid food waste too.

westendgirl Tue 25-Jun-24 16:43:41

Primrose , don't you ever stop to think ?
People are often desperate when they come to foodbanks.They are also ashamed. Life can be cruel. Things are going well then misfortune strikes. You are made redundant, your landlord wants to sell the property and you need advice which foodbanks can provide. You partner walks out on you.
Please stop and think .It's clear from your posts that you have little idea of what some people go through.

zakouma66 Tue 25-Jun-24 16:38:29

Primrose53

MissAdventure

Breakfast clubs, which are used for many different reasons, charge, foobanks allow six visits (I think)

Only certain foodbanks do that. There are loads of foodbanks like at the Salvation Army where people can go as often as they like. There are also foodbanks at community fridges of which there are many.

You can't just rock up at the local SA. You need a referral and you certainly can't go multiple times.

Still, lets not let the truth get in the way.

Glorianny Tue 25-Jun-24 16:29:46

Primrose53

GrannyRose15

Don’t worry. Food banks will disappear overnight once Labour gets into power.

We have Labour to thank for creating a generation dependent on hand outs. The more they get the more they expect.

Free school meals, foodbanks, breakfast clubs, benefits - still not good enough, they were asking for others to feed their kids in school holidays!

Actually children on free school meals used to be fed in the school holidays. I loved school at the primary stage and I can remember asking my mum why some children on my council estate were going into school during the summer holidays, because I wanted to go as well. She explained that they were children with daddies who were out of work and they went for their lunch. That was in the 1950s

Wyllow3 Tue 25-Jun-24 15:04:41

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Skydancer Tue 25-Jun-24 14:37:23

The UK's liberal society has caused more problems than it has solved.
I totally agree with this statement from Netherbyg84

Farzanah Tue 25-Jun-24 12:06:15

Netherbyg84

Presumably the women who climbed into bed with the man with 10 children did so willingly?
Probably did so in order to claim more child benefit.
The UK's liberal society has caused more problems than it has solved.

How do you know that? On both counts?

Primrose53 Tue 25-Jun-24 09:06:49

MissAdventure

They were asking for the equivalent amount of money as a free school meal, since they had been assessed, and found to be within the the demographic to fulfill that criteria. (£3 per day)

No doubt grandparents spend far more on providing meals for grandchildren.

I would have been ashamed to ask people to feed my kids any time, let alone in school holidays.

What does a sandwich cost to make? Homemade soup? Pence!

Primrose53 Tue 25-Jun-24 09:02:32

MissAdventure

Breakfast clubs, which are used for many different reasons, charge, foobanks allow six visits (I think)

Only certain foodbanks do that. There are loads of foodbanks like at the Salvation Army where people can go as often as they like. There are also foodbanks at community fridges of which there are many.

Netherbyg84 Tue 25-Jun-24 08:34:47

Presumably the women who climbed into bed with the man with 10 children did so willingly?
Probably did so in order to claim more child benefit.
The UK's liberal society has caused more problems than it has solved.

Germanshepherdsmum Tue 25-Jun-24 07:50:01

Would you have wanted to live there? It sounds pretty intimidating to me.

zakouma66 Tue 25-Jun-24 06:45:41

biglouis

I have to agree with what much of GSM says.

When I came to Manchester to go to uni I made a tremendous material sacrifice to better my qualifications. It was a huge culture shock.

I lived among the underclass on one of the toughest estates in the city, now demolished. People I would previously have touched with two dirty sticks. But it taught me a lot about survival.

I dare say they wouldn't have wanted to touch you either.

What a vile thing to say.

Ladyleftfieldlover Tue 25-Jun-24 05:49:26

Harsh.

Luckygirl3 Tue 25-Jun-24 01:00:02

biglouis

I have to agree with what much of GSM says.

When I came to Manchester to go to uni I made a tremendous material sacrifice to better my qualifications. It was a huge culture shock.

I lived among the underclass on one of the toughest estates in the city, now demolished. People I would previously have touched with two dirty sticks. But it taught me a lot about survival.

And sod all about compassion.

MissAdventure Mon 24-Jun-24 23:23:42

Breakfast clubs, which are used for many different reasons, charge, foobanks allow six visits (I think)

MissAdventure Mon 24-Jun-24 23:20:23

They were asking for the equivalent amount of money as a free school meal, since they had been assessed, and found to be within the the demographic to fulfill that criteria. (£3 per day)

No doubt grandparents spend far more on providing meals for grandchildren.

Primrose53 Mon 24-Jun-24 22:41:19

GrannyRose15

Don’t worry. Food banks will disappear overnight once Labour gets into power.

We have Labour to thank for creating a generation dependent on hand outs. The more they get the more they expect.

Free school meals, foodbanks, breakfast clubs, benefits - still not good enough, they were asking for others to feed their kids in school holidays!

biglouis Mon 24-Jun-24 22:25:08

I have to agree with what much of GSM says.

When I came to Manchester to go to uni I made a tremendous material sacrifice to better my qualifications. It was a huge culture shock.

I lived among the underclass on one of the toughest estates in the city, now demolished. People I would previously have touched with two dirty sticks. But it taught me a lot about survival.

Luckygirl3 Mon 24-Jun-24 21:32:59

GrannyRose15

Don’t worry. Food banks will disappear overnight once Labour gets into power.

Well no they won't, as we all know. It will be a long slow job trying to reverse this decline. The Tories have had 14 years to create this mess.

GrannyRose15 Mon 24-Jun-24 21:25:42

Don’t worry. Food banks will disappear overnight once Labour gets into power.