Britain’s schools and primary health services are “staggering” under the pressure of demand caused by an epidemic of extreme poverty, as desperate families unable to afford food, clothing or heating increasingly turn to them for crisis help.
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, new research has found.
Staff routinely helped parents solve housing, visa and benefits problems, and provided them with food, clothes, and shower and washing machine facilities.
Schools said they were devoting growing resources to “firefighting” behavioural issues stemming from pupil and parent hunger, poverty, poor housing and mental ill health.
GPs and schools, particularly in deprived areas, were now typically regarded by struggling families as a “first-line service” that would deal with their problems, the JRF said, in part because other forms of community-based advice and support such as Sure Start had been cut over the past 14 years.
Prof Kamila Hawthorne, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “General practice, and other public services, can’t be expected to pick up the pieces – we’re already facing unprecedented pressures as demand for our appointments increases in volume and complexity.”
The original article contains 839 words, the summary contains 219 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Britain’s schools and primary health services are “staggering” under the pressure of demand caused by an epidemic of extreme poverty, as desperate families unable to afford food, clothing or heating increasingly turn to them for crisis help.
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, new research has found.
Staff routinely helped parents solve housing, visa and benefits problems, and provided them with food, clothes, and shower and washing machine facilities.
Schools said they were devoting growing resources to “firefighting” behavioural issues stemming from pupil and parent hunger, poverty, poor housing and mental ill health.
GPs and schools, particularly in deprived areas, were now typically regarded by struggling families as a “first-line service” that would deal with their problems, the JRF said, in part because other forms of community-based advice and support such as Sure Start had been cut over the past 14 years.
Prof Kamila Hawthorne, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “General practice, and other public services, can’t be expected to pick up the pieces – we’re already facing unprecedented pressures as demand for our appointments increases in volume and complexity.”
The original article contains 839 words, the summary contains 219 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!