Manisfesto Week - a few thoughts

Today marks the end of manifesto week – five days of political parties across the UK announcing their plans and promises ahead of next month’s General Election.??

Unfortunately at times like this, the issues facing children and young people – and especially those we support at Barnardo’s - are very rarely front and centre of the public or political debate. And with so many challenges facing the country, in such a difficult economic climate, the parties face unenviable choices about what to prioritise.??

But even so, I have to say I’m disappointed with the lack of vision for the UK’s next generation.?

With the number of children living in poverty having risen to 4.3 million and a million facing destitution, it’s particularly concerning that neither manifesto from the two largest UK parties committed to ending the two-child limit – a benefit cap that unfairly penalises families who have more than two children. Despite this being an immediate and definitive way to lift 300,000 children out poverty – most of whom are from working families – this was conspicuously absent.?

For children who went to school hungry this morning, and for parents desperately searching in their cupboards to scrape together tonight’s dinner, there is very little on offer that speaks to their urgent needs and their hopes for the future. With so many charities and other organisations having spent months and years arguing for free school meals and an essentials guarantee in Universal Credit – it’s deeply frustrating that parties have decided not to commit to basic actions that would make life so much better for so many children.?

Also in short supply were plans on how to put a stop to spiralling children’s social care costs and start a systemic shift towards a preventative approach to public services. A few weeks ago, I spoke at an Institute for Government event, discussing how early intervention spending in England over the last decade has fallen by 46%, whilst the number of children going into care or presenting serious safeguarding needs has risen by 47%. At Barnardo’s, we see the consequences of this failure to invest in prevention every single day.??

When people miss out on the right support at the right time, more families reach crisis point, more children enter care and ultimately there is an increased cost to the public purse – as well as the human cost to families. So where were the strategies to end this vicious cycle? Where is the long-term, transformational thinking??

On the subject of children in care, we were also disappointed to see little mention of this group of young people. Young adults who have experienced care are less likely to be in education or employment than their peers and they’re more likely to face discrimination, homelessness and contact with the criminal justice system. We continue to campaign for a statutory offer of support for care leavers, including access to free bus travel and rent guarantor and deposit schemes in every local authority, but no manifesto came close to this.?

There were, however, some glimmers of hope amidst the hundreds of pages of promises, pledges and plans. The Conservatives announced a family hub for every local authority in England, which would provide vital support for families, something we have championed for many years. In Labour’s manifesto, unveiled to the public yesterday, they committed to plans for a cross-government child poverty strategy. With 4.3 million UK children currently living in poverty, a strategy cannot come soon enough for families struggling to heat their homes or put food on the table and we welcome it, but we need to see timely and decisive action, starting with lifting the two-child limit.?

Also promising were announcements about online safety, new legal safeguards around strip-searching children and young people, and the creation of a new offence of criminal exploitation of children – all important proposals with the potential for significant impact, which we have spent years campaigning for.?

I was pleased to see a focus on children’s mental health – with more than 1.4 million children living with a mental health condition in England alone, this is something the next government cannot afford to ignore. Too many children are battling issues alone, trapped on lengthy waiting lists and unable to access proper support until it’s too late. It was encouraging to see that both Conservative and Labour manifestos made commitments to fund specialist mental health support for all schools.??

As always though, the devil is in the detail. Schools are already under huge pressure, and we need to make sure these policies come with enough funding and resources to make a real difference – to children, to teachers – and to their shared community, so that school is somewhere all children can thrive emotionally, as well as academically.??

This week, we’ve watched as political leaders stood on podiums and made grand statements about how they’d make this country better for our children. At Barnardo’s, we look forward to working with the next government to make that a reality – but truthfully, it’s going to require a much sharper focus on their safety, their health and their happiness, and it’s going to mean taking difficult decisions to prioritise investment in the future of today’s young people, and the future of our country. The question I’d ask, is can we afford not to???