General Election 2019: Manifesto round-up
We have done a round-up of policies on children, education and the arts. Please note that this article has been quoted verbatim from each manifesto, and parties have been ordered according to the number of seats they currently hold in the House of Commons.
The Arts:
- A £250 million cultural capital programme to support local libraries and regional museums.
- A Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 2022.
- Business rates relief for music venues and cinemas.
- Maintain support for creative sector and tax relief and free entry to the UK's national museums.
Education (for children aged 12 and under):
- An 'Arts Premium' for Secondary Schools.
- An extra £14 billion in funding for schools - that translates to at least £4,000 for each primary school pupil.
- Raising teacher starting salaries to £30,000.
- Expand 'alternative provision' schools for children who have been excluded.
- More school places for children with complex Special Educational Needs.
Children:
- Invest £500 million in new youth clubs and services.
- Cement the Opportunity Areas Programme.
- Review the care system to make sure that children and young adults are being provided with the support they need.
- A £1 billion fund to help create more high-quality, affordable childcare.
- Maintain the commitment to free school-meals.
The Arts:
- £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund to transform libraries, museums and galleries across the country.
- Make the distribution of National Lottery Funding more transparent.
- Maintain free entry to museums.
- Launch a Town of Culture competition.
- Work with trade unions and employers to make creative jobs accessible to all, ensuring diversity in these industries.
- Ensure libraries are preserved and updated for future generations.
Education (for children aged 12 and under):
- An Arts Pupil Premium to fund arts education for every primary school child.
- A £160 million annual boost for schools to ensure creative and arts education is embedded in secondary education.
- Radically reform early-years education to make high quality early-years education available to every child.
- Within 5 years, all 2-4 year olds will be entitled to 30 hours free education per week.
- Maximum class-sizes of 30 for all primary school children.
- Fund more non-contact time for teachers to prepare and plan.
- Scrap KS1 and KS2 SATS and baseline assessments, refocussing assessments on supporting pupil progress.
- Receive advise on integrating private schools into a comprehensive education system.
Children:
- An £845 million plan for Healthy Young Minds - more than doubling the amount spent on children and adolescent mental health services.
- Introduce a Future Generations Wellbeing Act.
- Develop a cross-governmental National Strategy for Childhood, focusing on health, security, well-being and poverty.
- Stop 300,000 children from being in poverty by scrapping the benefit cap and the two-child limit.
The Arts:
- If Brexit happens, campaign for streamlined visa schemes for artists and performers.
- Continue supporting tax incentives for Creative Industries.
- Work towards more equality, inclusion and diversity across the Creative Sector.
Education (for children aged 12 and under):
- £750 million Scottish Attainment Fund to close the attainment gap in schools.
- Expand early-learning and childcare provision from 600 hours per year to 1,140 hours.
Children:
- Expand childcare into the school holidays.
- Campaigning against the 'Rape Clause'.
- Introduce a new £10 a week Scottish Child Payment for low-income households by the end of next year.
The Arts:
- Maintain free access to national museums and galleries.
- Protect sports and arts funding via the National Lottery.
- Examine the available funding and planning rules for live music venues and the grassroots music sector, protecting venues from further closures.
- Support growth in the Creative Industries and create Creative Enterprise Zones.
Education (for children aged 12 and under):
- Protect the availability of arts and creative subjects in the curriculum and act to remove barriers to pupils studying these subjects.
- Teach the key skills required for children to flourish in the modern world: critical thinking, verbal reasoning and creativity.
- Reverse cuts to school funding and employ an extra 20,000 teachers.
- Scrap SATS and replace league tables with a broader set of indicators.
- Triple the Early Years Pupil Premium to £1000.
- Require Early-Years staff to complete a training qualification.
Children:
- Free, high-quality childcare for every child aged 2 to 4 years, and children between 9 and 24 months where their parents or guardians are in work: 35 hours a week, 48 weeks a year.
- Invest £1 billion a year in Children's Centres.
- Extend free school-meals to all children in primary education, and children in secondary education whose families are on Universal Credit.
Education (for children aged 12 and under):
- £16.5 million has already been spent on local schools.
Children:
- 30 hours for 28 weeks of childcare provision for 3-4 year-olds.
Education (for children aged 12 and under):
- Financial literacy and oracy to be included in the national curriculum.
- School health workers introduced in primary and secondary schools.
- 20-week retraining sabbatical for those in need of a mid-career skills boost.
The Arts:
- Demand a devolution of broadcasting.
- Maintain free entry to museums and develop a National Digital Library for Wales.
- Create a new National Gallery for Contemporary Art.
Education (for children aged 12 and under):
- £300 million extra for schools and colleges.
- Ensure teachers can make the needs of children and young people central to what they do.
- Develop a new curriculum, and allow sufficient time and resources for teachers to prepare to teach it.
Children:
- Universal free childcare 40 hours a week and a new £35/week payment for every child in a low-income family.
The Arts:
- Increase central government funding to councils by £10 billion a year. They can use this funding to nurture arts and culture in their areas, keeping local museums, theatres, libraries and art galleries open and thriving.
- Reforming copyright and intellectual property rights legislation to ensure a better balance between the rights of consumers and the rights of those working in the creative economy.
Education (for children aged 12 and under):
- Learning must be lifelong, liberating and accessible to all. Education can and should unlock creativity and enable self-expression across all ages.
- Restore arts and music education in all state schools.
- Increase funding by at least £4 billion per year.
- Long-term aim to reduce class sizes to under 20.
- Free schools from centrally imposed testing regimes, OFSTED inspections, rigid national curriculum and league tables.
- Formal education will start at 6 years-old. Those under 6 will remain in early-years education with a focus on play-based learning.
- Remove charitable status from private schools and charge full VAT on fees.
Children:
- Ensure that all children receive the basic elements of a good childhood: a decent place to live, safety and security in their community, time and space to play, as well as opportunities to learn and develop inside and outside of school.
- Prohibit the use of pesticides in the locality of homes, schools and children’s playgrounds.
- Phase in a Universal Basic Income with supplements for families with children.
General Election 2019: Manifesto round-up