As this article is published, the public will be preparing to cast their votes in an election where once again children’s health is low on the political agenda, despite soaring rates of obesity and a clear link between poverty and childhood ill-health.
The party manifestos brimmed with promises on mental health – and rightly so given the pitiful resourcing of services compared with the sharp rise in demand – but is the wider health of children, and the role of schools in protecting it, a blind spot in public policy?
The plight of school nurses is a case in point. Last month, a report by the Royal College of Nursing estimated that the number of full-time school nurses has dropped by 16 per cent between 2010 and 2017, despite the number of school-age pupils increasing by more than 450,000 during that time.
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