SPECIAL REPORT: Teaching staff say they're seeing children arrive hungry at school
Teachers in parts of our region say they are seeing examples of children going to school hungry and in uniforms that haven't been washed.
An investigation into child poverty, carried out by Granada Reports, also heard that doctors are seeing cases of conditions like rickets and others linked to malnourishment.
In the second of two special reports, our Political Correspondent Daniel Hewitt went to two schools in Lancashire where staff are struggling to find solutions to the problems of poverty:
The local Clinical Commissioning Group says 'Rickets is a very rare condition and has multiple causes including genetic, social and economic factors. In every area, including in Morecambe Bay, there will be a number of cases each year of people with vitamin D deficiency which at is most severe can lead to rickets; however this is very rare and not contagious.'
NHS England says that rickets is not directly caused by poverty and that no diagnosed cases of poverty-caused rickets can be identified in Morecambe at the time of broadcast in December 2017.
Morecambe MP David Morris questioned the claims made in ITV Granada's reports. He has also said that there have been no cases of poverty related rickets in Morecambe.
See also - 'Schools are frontline in fight against child poverty'
See also - 'Working families say low wages & rising prices are pushing them into poverty'
See also -'Special Report: The children from working families falling into poverty'