The election: where do the three main parties stand on support for education and families

Parents and carers have been asking for information on what the 3 main parties are saying about support for families. pinpoint has received the following suggestions which we hope you will find helpful. The County parent carer participation group also asked us to contact the local Prospective Parliamentary Candidates to ask them what they would do to support parents and carers of disabled children and young people in Cambridgeshire. Read more below.

What Cambridgeshire's Parliamentary Candidates say they will do to support parents and carers of disabled children and young people

 

Sabastian Kindersley, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate, South Cambs

 

As a supporter of the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign, I will: 

• Meet with disabled children, young people and their families to discuss key issues of concern to them
• Raise these issues of concern, and promote rights and resources for of disabled children, young people and families from South Cambs in Parliament
• Visit local services for disabled children and their families on a regular basis
• Support measures to improve services for disabled children and their families
• Find out how funding is being used in South Cambs to improve services for disabled children, young people and their families

 

Daniel Zeichner, Labour Parliamentary Candidate, Cambridge

 

I am proud to support a Labour Government which will further improve provision to disabled children. An extra £430 million is being invested including £370 million to improve short break services to help transform services disabled children and their families. We will expect all local authorities to help parents caring for disabled children by giving them breaks from their caring responsibilities. The Family Fund offers grants to the families of disabled children to help make life for young disabled people and their families easier and more enjoyable - eligibility for this has been extended to young disabled people up to age 18.

If elected MP I would always stand up for the interests of young disabled people, and would welcome an ongoing dialogue with both them, and their parents.

I realise this is not specific to the issues of the members of your group so I would welcome an early opportunity to meet you and members of the Network after Election Day to learn more about the issues involved and to see how I can help. Please also do come back to me if there are detailed issues you would like me to address before then..

 

Jim Paice, Conservative Candidate for South East Cambs

Thank you for your email and for giving me the chance to set out Conservative policy in the area. Can I firstly assure you that making life easier for disabled children and their families will continue to be a priority for me as a constituency MP and also for the whole Party.

I am always happy to try and help in anyway that I can to help children and their families in South East Cambridgeshire acces the help and support to which they are entitled and if I am re-elected I urge your members to contact me if they need help / support in this way.

In terms of national Conservative policy we have pledged to:

• Increase the number of health visitors
• Simplify the assessment process for accessing services
• Make it easier for parents / carers to access respite care
• Look carefully at ensuring that Local Authorities accurately assess children’s eligibility for Special Educational Needs statements.
• Put more power and control into the hands of parents and young disabled people themselves so that they can ensure that they receive the right care and support to best suit their needs.

I hope your members find this helpful and that they feel able to support me on 6 May.

 

Jonathan Djanogly, Conservative Candidate for Huntingdon Constituency

Let me say that, not least as President of Carers UK Huntingdon, I have the greatest respect for those who dedicate themselves to caring duties in our communities.  Caring is often an activity which is not noticed or acknowledged and I am always keen to visit local caring organisations and their activities.

We are committed to Sure Start and have no plans to close any Children’s Centres.  But we think the scheme could – and should – be better. By involving parents and community groups we will take Sure Start from strength to strength.

We will provide 4,200 extra health visitors – giving parents expert advice and support.   We will extend the right to request flexible working to all parents with children under 18, and create a new system of shared parental leave to make it easier for fathers as well as mothers to take time off when a baby is born.

We will simplify the tax credit system to make it easier for parents to get the help they need.

Finally, I support the extension of free nursery care but will review how it is funded.

I hope this will give you some idea of our policies.

Martin Land- Liberal Democrat Candidate for Huntingdon

Firstly, the budgets in these areas are delegated to County Councils and I would advise your members to keep in close contact and keep lobbying your local County Councillors over these issues as cutbacks in budgets start to come through.

I'll be honest, I think the next five years under whatever government will be a period in which even the most deserving groups in society will be able to do no more than hold on to what they have. The idea that most services will improve or have better funding is difficult to imagine.

If I was elected to parliament for Huntingdon you would have a sympathetic advocate trying to do the very best I could for children and young people with disabilities. As a teacher and as a parent I could do no less.

But I would not wish to pretend that it will be easy.

The following is from Douglas Silas Solicitors specialists in Education, Disability and Public Law, particularly special educational needs.

A number of people have been asking me during the last few weeks for my opinion on which political party is best on Education issues in the forthcoming General Election on 6th May 2010.

As you probably already know, I always try to never profess a personal opinion in my  work. For example, I advise and represent both parents seeking mainstream schooling or special schooling for their child with special educational needs. It is my firm belief that it is parents who usually know what is right for their child assisted by people like me and other professional experts to provide them with more information to be able to reach an informed decision.

Applying that same principle here of helping people reach an informed decision, I now attach links to a few news articles which you may find helpful to read, to find out about what the main political parties are saying about their plans for Education generally:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/apr/20/education-policies-general-election

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/apr/20/education-policy-election

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/safe-in-their-hands-how-the-parties-differ-on-schools-and-universities-1944835.html

...and if you haven't got time to read and digest everything, try this page from the BBC for a quick overview of some of the things the main parties are saying about Education issues being debated: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8515961.stm#subject=education&col1=conservative&col2=labour&col3=libdem

Here is an overview of the commitments that the three main parties have made relating to children with disabilities courtesy of the Every Disabled Child Matters (EDCM) Campaign: general Election 2010- Party Manifestos

Labour

• Said they will ‘“continue to invest in specialist services, including short breaks for disabled children.”

• Protect child trust funds and contribute an additional £100 a year to CTF for disabled children.

• Commitment towards working to goal of ending child poverty by 2020.

• The child element of the Child Tax Credit will be increased by £4 a week for families with children aged one and two from 2012.

• “Ring fenced budgets, central targets and indicators will be cut back”

• For primary-age children, we are guaranteeing childcare and constructive activities from 8am until 6pm in term-time.

• Grandparents caring for their grandchildren will receive National Insurance Credits towards their state pension.

• The right to flexible working is extended for older people

• SEN

1. Schools will be held to account for how well they meet the needs of SEN pupils
2. Expanding the number of specialist dyslexia teachers and improving teacher training for children with autism.
3. The statementing process will be improved to give more support to parents
4. Supply of teachers with the specialist skills needed to teach pupils with severe learning disabilities in special schools will be increased.

• “For those with the most serious conditions or disabilities who want to work” Labour will create a new guarantee of supported employment after two years on benefit.

• Labour will consult on further reforms to simplify the benefits system.

• 8,000 new therapists will ensure access to psychological therapy for all who need it

• More will be invested in anti-bullying interventions.

• Everyone with a long-term condition, such as those with diabetes, will have the right to a care plan and an individual budget.

• Investing £235 million to create new or refurbished play spaces and adventure playgrounds.

• Strengthen parental engagement with Sure Start Children’s Centres.

Conservatives

• The Conservatives will ““support carers…by providing direct payments to help with care needs and by improving access to respite care.”

• Cut contributions to Child Trust Funds for all but poorest third and disabled children

• Spoke of measures to help them realise goal of eliminating child poverty by 2020

• Support the provision of free nursery care for pre-school children, and we want that support to be provided by a diverse range of providers.

• Extend the right to request flexible working to every parent with a child under the age of eighteen.

• “The most vulnerable children deserve the very highest quality of care, so we will call a moratorium on the ideologically-driven closure of special schools. We will end the bias towards the inclusion of children with special needs in mainstream schools.”

• The Conservative’s work programme will offer people targeted, personalised help sooner – straight away for those with serious barriers to work and at six  months for those aged under 25.

• Will protect winter fuel allowance and DLA

• Will increase access to effective ‘talking’ therapies.

• The Conservative’s want to devolve control over health budgets to the lowest possible level, so people have more control over their health needs. For people with a chronic illness or a long-term condition, we will provide access to a single budget that combines their health and social care funding, which they can tailor to their own needs.

• They will provide £10 million a year beyond 2011 to support children’s hospices in their vital work. And so that proper support for the most sick children and adults can continue in the setting of their choice, we will introduce a new per-patient funding system for all hospices and other providers of palliative care.

• The Conservative Party is committed to keeping Sure Start, and will provide 4,200 more Sure Start health visitors

Liberal Democrats

• The Liberal Democrats (LD) stated that they will provide guaranteed respite care for the one million carers who work the longest hours” later in their manifesto they go onto say…”LD will offer a week’s respite for the one million carers who spend 50 hours every week looking after a sick relative”

• End Child Trust Funds

• Maintain commitment to end child poverty by 2020

• Cut the size of the central department of Children, Schools and Families, and focus its activities on a few strategic priorities.

• Protect existing childcare support arrangements until the nation’s finances can support a longer term solution: a move to 20 hours free childcare for every child, from the age of 18 months.

• Extend the right to request flexible working to all employees, making it easier for grandparents, for example, to take a caring role.

• Guarantee Special Educational Needs (SEN) diagnostic assessments for all 5-year-olds, improve SEN provision and improve SEN training for teachers.

• LD will give disabled job seekers better practical help to get to work, using voluntary and private sector providers, as well as JobCentre Plus services. We will also reform Access to Work, so disabled people can apply for jobs with funding already in place for equipment and adaptation that they need.

• Reform Winter Fuel Payments to extend them to all severely disabled people

• Improve access to counselling for people with mental health problems, by continuing the roll-out of cognitive and behavioural therapies.

• Confront bullying and include bullying prevention in teacher training.

• Tackle online bullying by backing quick-report buttons on social networking sites, enabling offensive postings to be speedily removed.

• Require better recording of hate crimes against disabled, homosexual and transgender people, which are frequently not centrally recorded.

• “Integrate health and social care to create a seamless service, ending bureaucratic barriers and saving money to allow people to stay in their homes for longer rather than going into hospital or longterm residential care.”

• Create elected Local Health Boards, which will take over the role of Primary Care Trust boards in commissioning care for local people

• Incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into UK law