Schools
One in four teachers brought food into classrooms to feed hungry children during the summer term. This rose to 31%in poorer areas, according to the charity Fare-Share, which campaigns against food waste. They said that many schools were changing from breakfast clubs to supplying parents from food banks and other services.
The teachers’ union NEU stated that its surveys had found that most teachers are providing free breakfasts and extra food during the day, either personally or through schools.
Health
Around 121,000 people died in 2022 whilst waiting for treatment from the National Health Service. This is the highest death count in the whole history of the NHS. It is double the 60,000 who died in 2017-18. It includes 40,000 who had waited for more than 18 weeks.
Under the NHS constitution treatment for non-urgent conditions was 18 weeks. Two in five of those on NHS waiting lists now face longer than 18 weeks wait.
All of these figures show how underfunding and privatisation by both Labour and Tory governments over the last decades have led to a massive erosion of the NHS. This amounts to a form of murder against working people, who are spending their last months of life in agony and discomfort.