The Telegraph

Eastern European parents are resorting to flying back to their home countries to take their children to the doctor or dentist because of NHS waiting lists in Britain, a study on migrant children shows.

Parents from countries such as Poland, Romania and Bulgaria also fear that schools in Britain are not taxing their children, are too lax and do not give them enough homework, it found.

The findings emerge from a unique two-and-a-half year study into the experiences of children from Eastern Europe whose parents came to Britain following the enlargement of the EU.

Children from Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary as well as a handful of non-EU states were asked to keep a diary and interviewed in depth alongside their parents and teachers.

It showed that while parents came to the UK in search of a "better life" for their children, many of the children themselves struggled with isolation and separation from close family and friends and in some cases suffered serious emotional problems.

Many families said coming to Britain offered new opportunities but others admitted they had swapped homes with gardens for high-rise flats and low-paid work which separated them from their children for long hours.

The study also highlighted a little-reported trend toward family break-up and divorce, often in cases where men have previously come to Britain to work ahead of their wives and not been premanently reuinted for months or years.

There were also cases of racism including one Roma family who found a swastika daubed on their front door.

Researchers from Strathclyde University studied the lives of almost 60 children, all of whose parents settled in different parts of Scotland, for the ?230,000 study backed by the Economic and Social Research Council.

It showed how many families kept strong ties to their home countries and even maintained their local doctor and dentist – often because of waiting lists in Britain.

One Polish mother, named Agatha in the report, told the researchers: "My child has asthma and they said you need to wait two months for a specialist, so I just decided to take a flight to Poland and see the doctor we know there."

Andrea, a 12-year-old Bulgarian girl who suffers from an eye condition, said: "We had to wait to see a specialist so long, so my mum decided to take a flight to Bulgaria and go and see the eye doctor who treated me first there, it was quicker."

Another 11-year-old child explained: "We went to see a dentist, and they said it's four months wait, so my mum just said we'll go to Poland for the weekend and we got all the dentist work done there."

Several families spoke of waiting until school holidays for medical treatment combining a visit to their home country with a trip to see a doctor.

But Scottish doctors interviewed said that the problem may boil down to cultural differences with far greater access to specialists in many Eastern European countries than in the UK.

Many parents and children said they preferred the British education system, with more choice over things such as what subjects they study, but some voiced concerns that their children were not being taxed as they had been before.

In some cases this amounted to language difficulties.

Gintare, a 15-year-old Lithuanian girl, said: "I want to be a dentist, so I know already what subjects I need, but sometimes the teachers think I wouldn't understand things, but I've done much harder stuff back home, for example in maths and science."

Many parents from Poland in particular spoke of sending their children to special Saturday schools to keep up with the curriculum in their home country so that they would not be behind if they went back.

Dr. Daniela Sime, the main author of the report, said: "I think it is to do with different systems.

"[IN many Eastern European countries] there is a lot of emphasis on things like homework and discipline and structure and respect, in a very rigid education system.

"Coming from something like that which is more formal there is a perception that the system here is more relaxed or that they were working below their ability.

"Some of them say that this is a better system with more choice, others would say that they don't have homework and they come home and do nothing."

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