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I think Teaching burden has changed in a lot of ways in the last 50 years
I think there's a big difference in the burden placed on teachers in early years schools vs secondary schools - and this is an early years school policy.
EDIT In fact now I google this, it applies to three- to five-year-olds so teachers would not be impacted.
Here's the actual proposal:
Labour will eliminate dental deserts and improve children’s oral health by:
- Delivering 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments per year, so more children can see a dentist when they really need to.
- Recruiting dentists to areas that need them with a targeted enhanced recruitment scheme.
- Introducing a targeted national supervised toothbrushing programme for 3–5-year-olds in our fully funded breakfast clubs.
Difficult to disagree with that imo.
- Delivering 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments per year, so more children can see a dentist when they really need to.
The tories made the exact same arguments in the 1970s when they took free milk away from early years school children. But they didn't give a shit about teacher workload. They just wanted to make a political point and save a bit of money.
The teachers incidentally were against the removal of free milk, despite the additional overhead it took out of their day to distribute it.
I've a feeling if another leader came up with this policy you'd be in favour of it.
EDIT: And let's not pretend teachers aren't already doing this. From the BDA:
students toothbrushes and toothpaste. 81% said there are children in
their school who don't have regular access to supplies
peers because of oral hygiene issues. Half report children isolating
themselves. One third have witnessed bullying directly
quarters (74%) said children who don't have regular access to oral
health products have discoloured teeth. Half said children had
noticeable tooth decay. 30% noted children in dental pain or
suffering from halitosis
classroom said it affected their mental health. 1 in 4 are kept
awake at night worrying about their students' wellbeing. 38% report
feeling helpless.