Further austerity is the only election certainty

As election day draws nearer, all the polls suggest no one party is likely to win an overall majority, with the result being that Labour and the Conservatives will have to negotiate with the "minor" parties over forming a new coalition government.

In 2010, it took five days of tense negotiation between the three main parties before the coalition agreement was signed. Back then, coalitions were uncharted territory in modern British politics, whereas now the parties have had plenty of time to plan for such an outcome. But despite that, the talks this time, should there be a hung parliament, look set to be far more complex and unpredictable, thanks to the growing popularity of the smaller parties - the nationalists in Scotland and Wales, and Ukip and the Greens in England. The outcome could result in a fracturing of the centre-left and centre-right politics that has dominated since the mid-1990s, with the potential for a new coalition leaning much further to the left or right. The other possibility is that the party that wins the most seats pushes ahead as a minority government and looks for backing from other parties on an issue-by-issue basis. Either scenario points to a sustained period of increased political uncertainty, with potentially damaging implications for policy making across a whole range of issues affecting children, young people and families.