To think the level of state involvement many posters expect is bonkers?

I remember a dentist coming into our school in the early seventies to check all children's teeth. A lot of things did used to happen that no longer happen.
In the very deprived areas in the early seventies, buses with mobile showers used to visit schools for the children who were dirty.

Thank you @Againname And @Giraffesandbottoms ❤️

Me too he really was a piece of work! Thank you so much❤️i'm really proud of the woman she has become and she is a fantastic Mam to my beautiful Granddaughter

@JenniferBooth It's very important kids are supported as they don't choose to be born but it's also very wrong imo to penalise childfree and childless people. They deserve enough money to live on and decent homes too. It isn't even a choice for some people (a friend and her DH are struggling right now with fertility treatments and it's very tough on them) and even when it's a choice childfree people pay tax too.

started by Labour, introduced an effective subsidy for companies to pay workers lower wages

JenniferBooth · Yesterday 21:28
@Againname I was signing on in the 90s just before minimum wage came in and there were jobs paying £50 a WEEK. My rent then was £48 a week for a one bedroom flat. Nothing else available. If i had had a job paying that i would have had £2 left to pay for everything else except rent. No top up because "you dont have kids

A hell of a lot of gaslighting and rewriting of history going on here when the low wages were already there beforehand.
@usernamealreadytaken Going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are too young to remember the Low Pay Unit or the abolition of it in the EARLY 90s which lead to the low pay (particularly for those without children) before working tax credit came in.

No you come on

Self care is personal development.

Regardless whether you accept the terminology, the pp above who said you just incorporate it as a daily activity for the class after lunch, everyone does it, not just the ones that need help. This is actually what happened at my school. The point is to catch the few that have been embarrassingly (agreed) failed by their parents.

I don't think there being such a simple backstop would encourage more hands off parenting, it would just help catch a few furry green teethed kids.

Also I meant it as much as an example of things that a government or authority can be involved in without overstepping. That opinion doesn't mean I think you specifically should spend the whole day with your hand in a kids mouth

Same - all the best @ChishiyaBat

Would the toothbrushing school sessions need to everyday? I'm tired and probably being stupid and missing something but what about a one off school dental visit, perhaps with a follow up 6 months or a year later.

Dentist comes to school, does one class lesson on how to brush properly, then hands out a starter pack to take home (toothbrush, toothpaste, daily sticker chart or similar, to encourage the child to brush regularly).

When I was at primary school, we had someone come in once. I remember us all taking dissolving tablets that turned any plaque on the teeth pink. (I'd been taught to brush at home but I don't see the harm in a one off visit, to help kids whose parents for whatever reason haven't taught them at home).

@ChishiyaBat I'm sorry for your daughter's situation (and your granddaughter). It's very unfair and I hope the rules change. She's the victim in this situation and shouldn't be liable for his debt xx

At least he is not in her life anymore. I really hope things get better for her.

She isn't really in the right frame of mind to do that right now to be honest. She pays £5 a month. I just hope that when he gets out of prison he becomes responsible for his own debt. Even the dwp said it was unfair, but the rules.

There was Supplementary Benefit too, for people on low incomes. And Family Income Supplement.

Oh come on - I would disagree with that absolutely. It’s basically medical yes, which is why medical insurance covers most dental procedures.

and even if not, expecting teachers to pick up the slack on basic shit like that is embarrassing.

But that’s pointless. 7 and under an adult needs to be brushing the teeth themselves.

It is really unfair that your daughter is having to pay off an overpayment caused by him.

Have you tried contacting your MP to see if they can persuade DWP to write the debt off given the circumstances? It would be worth a try.

Are you sure she got nothing?

No council housing?
No milk vouchers?
No family allowance (available in the 70's to unmarried mothers too)?

Well not technically no, but apparently he should have told uc. I'm assuming they would have got less uc because he was claiming carers. Now my poor daughter is stuck with his debt. While he's getting 3 meals a day in prison!

Edited to add she didn't know he was claiming carers allowance, the 1st she heard of it was when they started taking money off her uc! She tried fighting it, but they said because it was a joint claim she is liable. Which is unfair as he was financially abusing her!

Ah, I just saw this. I thought he was claiming it for his daughter, which confused me.

So although he was clearly a complete scumbag, he wasn't doing anything wrong claiming Carer's Allowance?

Yes it was dla.

By disability payment, do you mean DLA @ChishiyaBat ?

Tooth brushing isn't only a medical consideration it's a social one. social development is definitely under the remit of pastoral care

Well u wouldn't supervise tooth brushing individually surely. So after lunch ALL kids brush teeth while someone supervises. Done in 5 mins. .

I used to watch my kids brush their teeth at the same time

My daughter knew there was something not right from the start, but they kept saying she was paranoid as a 1st time mother. It was 18months before anyone took her seriously, but the diagnosis was relatively quick from there. She couldn't crawl and didn't walk until she was almost 2 and even now she can't walk any great distance, she kind of lurches when she walks and falls at least 10times a day. She does wear glasses, but is still waiting for a hearing test.

He was claiming it for looking after his father who had cancer nothing to with his daughter who thankfully he never really bothered with!

No idea what a child development clinic is, but no she isn't she is almost 2 and a half. She has a consultant who we saw once prior to diagnosis last summer, then she was given an mri scan in October last year, a few weeks after the mri scan we had a video call to give us the diagnosis of cerebral palsy left sided hypotonia, left leg shortening with talipes. An eeg was given as we thought she was having absence seizures, but that wasn't the case the eeg result said mild periventricular leukomalaxia and asymmetry with focal slowing on the left occiput and sharp transients whatever the hell that means, no one has explained to us what any of this means She still spaces out ar least a few times a week, the lights are on, but no one is home it's so strange. Also the physical problems and sleep disturbances, but we have no idea what to expect now or in the future. We are just looking after the best we can.

Where is the time to brush the children’s teeth coming from? If you have a class of 30 and 15 need their teeth brushed for 2 mins 2 x a day that’s an hour of the day. Where’s that coming from?!

that’s setting aside the fact you think it’s under “pastoral care” which it most certainly isn’t.