A decade of austerity has shrunk the British state to such a degree that it is no longer able to fulfil its basic functions. Just ask the cancer patient waiting for treatment or the teacher shutting school early on a Friday because they can’t afford to keep it open.

A winter election should, in theory, be ripe for highlighting such social crises. Food banks are reporting running out of supplies, as the last six months has seen a record number of people turn to them for emergency meals. More than half of hospitals have opened extra beds to help them cope with what’s been described as “the worst winter [for the NHS] since modern records began”. At least 135,000 children will be homeless and living in temporary accommodation across Britain on Christmas day – the highest number for 12 years. The five-week period people have to wait before receiving benefits with universal redit will result in some families being destitute over the holiday, while the Salvation Army has warned hundreds of homeless people will die as temperatures plummet.And yet there’s been a remarkable lack of attention to these issues in the campaign so far.

An election that was always doomed to be dominated by Brexit has become a soulless affair, in which soaring poverty or crumbling services are given little more than a shrug. Many walks to work are now lined with homeless people. Our disabled neighbours are trapped indoors without social care. The local library and children’s centre have likely closed their doors. But watch a news bulletin of a leader on the campaign trail or flick through the front pages and you would hardly know it. When John McDonnell gave a speech this week highlighting children living in poverty on the run-up to Christmas, it was notable how little traction it got.

Even the NHS, which has played a significant part in campaigning, had its biggest moment when framed in terms of a Brexit trade deal rather than underfunding. It is resulting in a bizarre shadow of an election campaign, as if we are sleepwalking through the most important vote in a generation with no real sense of what’s at stake.

Labour, now edging closer in the polls, has the right policies. But with only days left, it needs to fully win the argument.

This means convincing the electorate that something better is possible. It is clear there is an urgent need for change, from the Resolution Foundation warning that child poverty could hit a 60-year high if Boris Johnson gets elected, to the NHS considering rationing tests and treatments.

But dire forecasts alone never win an election. Just as people become resigned to an economic system that is failing them, there is a risk that large chunks of the public have endured a decade of cuts wrecking services and have no faith there is another way. Labour need to set out not only the extent of creeping poverty and broken services, but explain that they are entirely possible to fix. If a voter is old enough to have taken their toddler to Sure Start or been lifted out of hardship by tax credits, Labour must remind them. If a young voter has only ever known austerity, Labour must keep making the case that they deserve a future of housing, decent jobs or education without drowning in debt – and more to the point, that it is what a developed nation can more than afford.

Tackling the money issue is another key battle. Throughout this campaign, we have repeatedly been warned about the cost of Labour’s long-term spending plans, but considerably less is said about the price tag of Tory cuts that will end up costing the state more in the long run. Children living in B&Bs is inhumane but it also hugely wasteful; last year, councils had to pay out £1.1bn on temporary accommodation as a cocktail of benefit cuts and unaffordable housing hit – a 78% increase from five years ago. Meanwhile, the colossal failure of universal credit has cost the public purse almost £2bn , while pointless costly hospital admissions have rocketed as social care and disability benefits are pulled away. Labour’s ideal message is that, far from a safe pair of hands, the Conservatives are the party of financial incompetence.

Finally, it’s a matter of rooting policy in people’s experiences. There are some voters who gladly vote to help their fellow citizens, be it tackling homelessness or inequality. But it’s not cynical to acknowledge that the bulk of the electorate mark their cross based on what it means for them and their family. The key task of any progressive party is to join these dots. Ask someone if they’ve tried to get a GP appointment in the last year, or if they’ve struggled to pay their rent lately, and the cost of Tory cuts is clear. Labour’s army of volunteers are well placed to keep having these conversations on the doorstep, and anyone who can spare an hour should join in.

As a panicking Boris Johnson digs in to secure a majority, the coming days will likely be filled with more bluster and falsities. But they mustn’t distract from what really matters: rebuilding the social fabric that has been ravaged over the last decade. The clock on the winter election is ticking. We have exactly a week left to fight for a better society.

• Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist and author of Crippled: Austerity and the Demonisation of Disabled People