Labour’s 2015 Manifesto Consultation

Labour’s 2015 Manifesto Consultation

Process:

1. ‘Conversations’ (2011-13)

2.‘Policy Commissions’ produce consultation papers; responses by 13 June 2014

3. Papers to the National Policy Forum in July 2014

4. Adopted by conference in September 2014


Economy• Stability and Prosperity Policy• Work and Business Policy• Living Standards and Sustainability Policy

Society• Stronger, Safer Communities Policy• Education and Children Policy• Health and Care Policy

Politics• Better Politics Policy

International• Britain's Global Role Policy


Economy• Stability and Prosperity Policy• Work and Business Policy• Living Standards and Sustainability Policy

Society• Stronger, Safer Communities Policy• Education and Children Policy• Health and Care Policy

Politics• Better Politics Policy

International• Britain's Global Role Policy


Stronger, Safer Communities

This Policy Consultation covers:• Housing• Local government• Crime and policing• Criminal Justice• Immigration• Culture, media and sport


Stronger, Safer Communities - Housing:

• More Houses - at least 200,000 homes a year by 2020, initially brownfield sites.

• affordable and social housing back on track.• support local authorities who want to build more

social homes.• develop new towns and garden cities ‘at pace’.• tackle land banking by giving local authorities

powers to charge developers who refuse to build.• Better Renting:

• tackle unpredictable and rapid increases in rental costs, encouraging longer-term lets; lower the cost of rent.

• regulate letting agents and end rip-off fees and charges.

• tough sanctions on rogue landlords - minimum property condition.


Stronger, Safer Communities – Local Government:

• change the way local authorities are funded; implement a fairer funding system to support communities which need the most support.

• give local authorities greater freedom and control, to deliver the public services by pooling and devolving budgets to a single place.

• look at how cooperative and mutual principles can be developed further to help shape services.

• planning power to make it easier for residents to prevent high streets becoming dominated by bookmakers or payday lenders; powers for councils to cap or ban betting shops.

• examine what further action is needed on alcohol licensing.


Stronger, Safer Communities – Crime & Policing:

• prioritise preventative action (e.g. through Youth Services).

• legislate to stop the police using community resolutions for crimes like domestic and sexual violence.

• go back to neighbourhood policing.• active recruitment policies to increase diversity in the

police service, especially in our big cities.• support the Stevens Commission, which aimed to:

• get officers back on the beat, • give communities a greater say in local policing

priorities, • raise professional standards of police officers, • replace the discredited Independent Police

Complaints Commission.• reform of the stop-and-search powers used by the

police.


Stronger, Safer Communities – Criminal Justice:

• introduction of a Victims’ Law, with entitlement to restorative justice as a priority.

• legal aid to those who need it the most (means tested).• a system of swift and proportionate punishment.• prioritise rehabilitation.• subject the probation services to transparency and

scrutiny.• tackle violence against women and girls as a priority.

• increase action to stop human trafficking, and modern-day slavery in the UK,

• prevent young victims of female genital mutilation,• better training of police and criminal justice

professionals,• a new Commissioner for domestic and sexual

violence.• education to increase our children’s online safety and

protect them from pornography.


Stronger, Safer Communities - Immigration:

• a proper strategy for integration. • all public sector workers in public facing jobs to

reach a basic level of English proficiency, • encourage LAs to prioritise English language learning

rather than translation materials. • regulation to prevent landlords cramming migrants into

sub-standard housing, and to ban segregated shifts.• ensure immigrants will not claim benefits straight away. • stop family benefits being paid to family members living

abroad.• control the pace of migration - cap workers from outside

the EU, with transitional controls to restrict workers from countries joining the EU.

• reduce illegal and low-skilled immigration.• put proper exit checks in place so that we can track who

is coming and who is leaving the country.


Education and Children Policy

Commission

This Policy Consultation covers:• High Standards for all in schools and colleges• Apprenticeships and Higher Education• Children and families


Principles• ‘The forgotten 50 per cent’ - we will transform

vocational routes for the 50 per cent who do not go to university, with gold standard qualifications, and a step change in the number and quality of apprenticeships.

• ‘Flawed Free Schools programme’ - Labour understands that improving the quality of teaching, and not an obsessive focus on types of school, is the most important mechanism to drive up education standards for all children and young people.

• ‘Local oversight of standards’ – denigrates ‘the current Government’s top down approach to education’ and says that ‘in a One Nation education system, parents and local communities will have a greater say’

• If we are to build a country where everyone can play their part, a Labour Government will need to back hardworking families who, too often, cannot get the childcare they need to balance work and family life during the cost of living crisis.


Principles continued

• “For Britain to succeed in the 21st Century, we must earn our way in the world and win the race to the top, with a high skill, high wage economy. We can only build such an economy with all of Britain’s young people playing their part.”


Education and Children Policies - Schools:

• all teachers in state schools should have a teaching qualification.

• revalidation on a rolling basis.• all young people continue English and maths to 18.• a Technical Baccalaureate, accredited by business and

including a vocational qualification, work experience, and English & Maths.

• devolution of power from Whitehall so local communities have a greater say about education in their area, especially new schools.

• extend to all schools the freedoms of academies (eg curriculum).

• ‘outstanding’ schools required to partner with weaker schools.

• existing Free Schools and those in the pipeline will continue, but inspected as other schools.

• funding for new schools in areas with a places shortage.• high quality PE• all pupils should have access to healthy and nutritious

food, and we want healthy food standards to apply to all schools.


Education and Children Policies – Further Ed:

• increasing dramatically the number of apprenticeships:• all firms that bid for major government procurement

contracts to provide new apprenticeship opportunities.

• employers to create more apprenticeships in exchange for more control over skills funding and standards.

• government should lead by example and every ministerial office should have an apprentice.

• end low quality apprenticeships of short duration which provide no training; apprenticeships must:

• be focused on new entrants to the jobs market, • include more off-the-job training, • last for a minimum of two to three years.

• Our vision for Britain does not include students graduating with over £40,000 of debt.

• Retraining and lifelong learning options for those who need them.


Education and Children Policies – Families:

• the right intervention as early as possible.• reduce the number of children that nursery workers and

childminders can look after.• expand free childcare from 15 to 25 hours pw for

working parents of 3 and 4-year-olds; the bank levy rate will be increased to meet the cost of this, which will save £1,500 per child p.a.

• a legal guarantee of wraparound care 8am to 6pm through the local school.

• changes to the Schools Admissions Code to allow all schools to prioritise disadvantaged children eligible for the Pupil Premium.

• give local areas the powers to direct all schools to admit hard-to-place children.

• ensuring we have a child protection system working effectively to protect children at risk of harm and neglect is of course of primary importance.


Health and Care Commission

This Policy Consultation covers:• Our NHS• The future of Social Care• Public health• Mental health


Principles• ‘We need to look at powerful rights for individuals,

codified in the NHS Constitution, along with greater opportunities for patients to be involved in designing and shaping their own care.

• ‘Labour recognises the vital work of local authorities across a range of services that impact on health, including social care, housing and their new public health responsibilities.

• ‘People … should be empowered to manage their conditions, and be at the centre of the decision making process and the planning of their care. We want to see more choice for patients over where they receive their treatment and care.

• ‘Labour believes that ensuring older people are treated with dignity must be a top priority.’


Principles continued

• “The next Labour Government will remain true to our values and vision for the NHS: a comprehensive universal health service, free at the point of need, and fit for the 21st Century.

• “One Nation Labour is determined to protect and strengthen the NHS, even in an era when money is tight. ”


Health and Care Policies – Our NHS:

• protect the NHS by repealing the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

• support the principle of NHS preferred provider.• strengthen Health and Wellbeing Boards, enabling

health and social care to be fully integrated at a local level.

• implement the Oldham Commission on Whole-Person Care:

• integrate … three separate, fragmented services – physical, mental and social – into a single service coordinating all of a person’s needs.

• break down the organisational and cultural barriers between those involved in providing, commissioning and planning care.

• give people the right to receive their end-of-life care at a place of their choosing.


Health and Care Policies – Our NHS:

• Implement the Francis Recommendations after Mid-Staffs scandal

• ensure patients have a formal role in drawing up and deciding on proposals for service change before they get to consultation stage.

• take the power to run consultations from the NHS commissioners, and give it to the Health & Wellbeing Board.

• personal control over care, regular feedback, community involvement, and a strengthened role for Healthwatch, alongside a robust national inspection regime.

• it should be easier for people to see their GP, and appropriate alternatives to A&E.

• extended access to primary care, including community services such as pharmacies, sexual health services and dentists.


Health and Care Policies – Social Care:

• a genuinely integrated NHS and social care system which helps older people stay healthy and living independently, in their own homes, for as long as possible.

• widen the definition of ‘carer’ to include young carers, and parents caring for disabled children.

• NHS bodies should have a duty to identify carers, to signpost them to the right help and support.

• national pay frameworks and the stability for the health and care workforce.

• safe staffing levels, based on expert advice, learning from where things have gone wrong in the past.

• better regulation of health and care support workers.• end exploitation in the care sector, including by tackling

the abuse of zero hours contracts.


Health and Care Policies – Social Care:

• look at how tackle the problem of unhealthy food being marketed to children.

• possible regulations such as legal limits on sugar, fat and salt in foods.

• measures on standardised cigarette packaging, measures to ban adults purchasing cigarettes or tobacco for children, and a ban on smoking in cars when children are present.

• re-write the NHS Constitution to create a new right to

psychological therapies that help people recover from conditions like anxiety and depression.

• more mental health specialists working in teams with GPs, nurses and carers.

• a Mental Health Taskforce on how we can break the mental health taboo and improve mental health in society.

Documents

Labour’s 2015 Manifesto Consultation