News Insight: Labour leadership contenders set out their plans for children
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
On 25 September, one of these people will become leader of the opposition in the midst of a horrendous economic climate. CYP Now asked each of them to set out their policies for children and young people and for all those who work to improve young lives.
ED BALLS, Shadow Education Secretary, and MP for Morley and Outwood
It was a privilege to be the first Secretary of State for children. I would restore the Department for Children, Schools and Families when we are returned to government because I believe children should be at the heart of government policy. They are the future of our country and investing in them benefits us all.
But the coalition clearly disagrees. They are marginalising children's policy and children are bearing an unfair share of their reckless, premature cuts. Young people are arguably suffering even more, with youth provision slashed, the Future Jobs Fund abolished and vocational learning downgraded. The coalition's top-down approach leaves no room for young people to get involved and make their views heard.
If I become leader I wouldn't just look to restore what was there before. The world changes and we need to be open to new ideas.
In places I would go further and faster, and make hitting our previously outlined child poverty target in 2020, my top priority.
I'd fully integrate child and adolescent health services with education and social care. I'd have more co-operatives and staff-led mutuals running services - although not as under-funded alternatives to "the State". I'd prioritise prevention and early intervention. In youth crime I would focus more on rehabilitation and drug treatment. I'd have fewer, smarter outcome indicators, with flexibility about how to meet them. I'd expand early years provision and see through social work reforms, which are essential for child protection.
I believe effective family courts are crucial for children's services and would keenly await the outcomes of the family justice review.
I would not rush into changing the care system but I would look at how to ensure the right children enter care - and leave it again - at the right times. And I'd build on our reforms to help disabled children and their families.
I would set this out in a second Children's Plan, heavily informed by children themselves and by people who devote their lives to helping them.
ANDY BURNHAM, Shadow Health Secretary, and MP for Leigh
I want to break down the barriers faced by too many young people and provide them with the chances in life that others take for granted. This means investing heavily in early years education, challenging selection and elitism in schools and supporting young people with disabilities and young carers, who face the biggest challenges when it comes to making their way in the world.
To give young people the highest possible expectations and aspirations, we need bold action at every stage of their lives.
True comprehensive education - at intake, curriculum and the breadth of extra-curricular opportunities offered - is the best way to help children achieve their potential and build a strong, cohesive society. While I support parents' rights to make choices about their child's education, any system which curtails a child's chances at 11 is wrong. That is why I will have a ballot on the continuation of grammar schools and include all parents in the area, not just those with children at the schools.
But education is not limited to the classroom. Young people should be able to explore the world around them, travelling to cultural, sporting and political events as part of their education and social development. I will look at ways of giving young people a choice between unlimited free transport and the Educational Maintenance Allowance. For the least well-off, it may be possible to offer both.
I will continue Labour's mission to offer university education to everyone who wants it, but I will also focus more on the future of those young people who don't want to follow that academic route. I propose a major expansion of apprenticeships in the public sector, specifically linked to improved skills provision for young people in schools from age 14.
For a strong future, we must invest in young people, giving them the practical and social skills necessary to succeed. That is what I am determined to do if I am elected Labour leader.
DIANE ABBOTT, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington
I am proud to be in the running to lead the party that I love. But I am also a single mother who knows the struggles of bringing up a child alone.
It is because I am a mother that one of my biggest concerns is the huge number of children who continue to live in poverty in this country. In London, where I have been an MP for more than 23 years, there is perhaps the biggest gap between rich and poor of any city.
Labour did a great deal during its 13 years in office to help address the problem. We set up services like Sure Start, which gave less well off families access to childcare.
But this has since become one of the many schemes threatened by the coalition, along with the hugely successful Building Schools for the Future programme.
In fact, the LibCons seem intent on filling this deficit by hitting women and children the hardest. They have made vicious cuts to essential services such as child housing benefits, which will have a huge effect on thousands of women and their families, and subsequently plunge even more children into poverty.
As leader of the Labour Party and as a mother, I want to stand up against these callous cuts. I plan to protect jobs and services by scrapping the nuclear weapons system Trident, which would save billions of pounds for our public services and welfare state.
I want all children, no matter what their background, to have access to the best possible education. I will achieve this by holding the government to account and ensuring they invest in our schools. For the past 10 years, I have campaigned to improve the education of black boys and regularly hold an awards ceremony for high achievers. The welfare of children and young people must be a priority for whoever leads the party.
As a politician and a mother, I think I am best placed to ensure these members of our society remain a priority for the Labour party in the many years to come.
DAVID MILIBAND, Shadow Foreign Secretary, and MP for South Shields
I have said throughout this leadership campaign that I want opportunity to be a birthright, not a privilege. That means making sure every child gets the help they need to fulfil their ambitions. And it is the people who work with children - whether they teach, support, or advise - who make the real difference in ensuring that happens.
Labour made progress while in government. We expanded the children's workforce and encouraged more joined-up working between social care, health, youth, early years and education professionals. I am particularly proud that as schools minister (from 2002 to 2004), I negotiated the partnership deal that broke down the divide between teachers and support staff.
We raised standards in schools, prioritising the disadvantaged, and implemented the Every Child Matters agenda. We also introduced extended schools as a way of providing wrap-around services, while ensuring schools were at the heart of communities across the country. Building Schools for the Future (BSF), which I initiated, was a crucial part of this.
But ours is only a job half done. Still too often, background determines opportunities and outcomes. And too many children are left unsupported and unprepared for the future. So I want to make sure that everyone working with children is properly valued and that their expertise is deployed to the benefit of all youngsters. I want to find ways to recruit and retain outstanding practitioners and direct them to the toughest areas. I want a school curriculum that is broad and engaging and that takes into account the entirety of children's needs.
This is not a vision that the current government can sign up to. Their callous and counter-productive cuts to BSF show they are abandoning the principle of creating opportunity for all. Their rigid view of the curriculum is a step backwards.
When I say something I mean it and nothing is more important to me than making sure we have world-class public services that provide children with the personal support that will ensure their future success.
ED MILIBAND, Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary, and MP for Doncaster North
Right from the start I have put my own values at the centre of my leadership campaign, because I believe that's the right way, in fact the only way, to do politics. In no area is this more true than in protecting and promoting the rights of children and young people.
Children and young people should be at the forefront of our political discussion, not just because they represent our future, but because it is vitally important to get them involved in our society, to show them, as early as possible, that they belong.
On a policy level, that means doing things like lowering the voting age to 16. On a personal level, it means harnessing the energies of young people and involving them in campaigning to change society for the better.
I want the Labour party to rediscover its roots as a campaigning organisation. Last December I marched with thousands of young people in London, calling on the world to take tough action on climate change. That experience reminded me that the enthusiasm of youth is vital. It also disproves the myth that young people do not care about the world around them.
I am in favour of a graduate tax to replace tuition fees because I believe that people should be allowed to decide which university to go to on the basis of their needs and preferences, combined with a graduate's ability to pay in the future, rather than by whether they can pay upfront.
The policies of the coalition so far have shown a certain short-sightedness in their approach to the issues that affect children and young people. As a party and as a country, we need to reach out more and speak not only to the worries of young people but to their aspirations as well. If I am elected leader of the Labour Party, I want the party to reflect the importance of young people in everything it does.