Lollipop staff are vital to keeping kids safe in Scotland

Record View says lollipop staff deserve to be valued and properly funded.

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It is a massive concern that the number of lollipop staff in Scotland has fallen dramatically in the last 15 years.

These workers play a key part in our society, keeping children safe on their way to and from school. Their presence saves kids’ lives day after day. It prevents them from running out into the road and being hit by vehicles.

They deserve to be valued and properly funded. This is especially important at a time when the number of road deaths in Scotland is at a six-year high.

For East Dunbartonshire to have less than a third of the lollipop staff than it had in 2007 is a disgrace. But the Scottish-wide stats are also worrying.

With such few people in paid roles, a disaster is waiting to happen. The SNP has clearly let this issue slide since it came to power.

This has gone on long enough. It is crucial that the trend of reducing staff ends immediately. Local authorities are often hard-pressed and face regular cuts to their budget. But they risk putting our children in danger by continually scrapping jobs.

The Scottish Government should step in to make sure that local authorities have enough money to employ an adequate number of staff. As GMB Scotland organiser Sean Baillie said: “Nothing could be more important than ensuring the safety of our children”.

If the Government doesn’t do something, there will be an increase in schoolchildren involved in bad road accidents. It is vital that it acts before we see catastrophic consequences.

When thousands of doctors and nurses are raising serious concerns about safe staffing levels, NHS bosses must listen.

We’ve already heard countless times how wards are at breaking point but the scale of the unsafe staffing will shock people. Highly trained employees have complained more than 21,000 times over a five-year-period.

But instead of the problem being addressed, it appears to be worsening, with the most complaints made in the last financial year. The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats has accused the First Minister of leaving a legacy of workforce shortages.

And while health boards must share the blame for a failure to provide adequate numbers of staffing, the Scottish Government’s lack of forward thinking is clearly under the microscope.

Too many doctors and nurses have left the NHS, sickened at the pressure they have been put under which has exacerbated an already dire situation. More needs to be done to retain and recruit staff to give patients confidence that there will be enough medics to treat them safely.

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