As a school governor, the funding situation is dire and much worse than the last Parliament. My oldest is in year 5. Through her time in infants she had classes of 20 ish, with a teacher, 2 TA per class, lots of extra activities. My youngest is 3 years behind her and her experience has been very different in the same school, much fewer staff, a mainstream school being forced to take children whose needs they cannot meet so all TA'sare diverted to a seperate class which has been set up for these children who cannot cope in mainstream classes. From having a healthy budget surplus they are likely to end this year in deficit for the first time in 15 years, as the wait times in our area for EHCPS are double what they were 3 years ago so the schools aren't getting the funding through. The money promised from VAT on private fees has never materialised. The universal free breakfast clubs promised by Labour have never materialised.
My best friend is a social worker and reports huge budget cuts over the past few years, staff are stretched to breaking point, with several off long term with stress.
I have worked in commuinity paediatrics for nearly 20 years. Everyone in our team will confidently say the last 2-3 years are the worst in history. Our speech therapy team have had to close their wait lists as too long, and if those who are seen get 1 appt, advice abd then discharge. My daughter was under the same team 6 years ago and was seen weekly for a year.
And yet our national debt is higher than ever.
Yes, some of the issues are linked to external factors like wars abroad. And there may be policy work going on in the background. But your average person doesn't care about the background. They care about their life right now.
- how long they and their family wait for nhs care
- the quality of their child's education right now
- how much money they have left after paying essential bills
- how their commuinity looks and feels, is it clean and safe
And for many people things are much worse.