The Topics

“[This past year] has shown – if there was any doubt – that deep wells of talent, kindness, ingenuity and resourcefulness exist in every village, town and city of the United Kingdom. The Government’s task is to mobilise that extraordinary spirit, matching talent with opportunity and unleashing our nation’s full potential.”
(Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, Introduction to The Queen’s Speech)

“Tell №10” is a grassroots policy initiative focussing on how we can help to improve women’s lives with an even better policy offer. Public polling indicates that Conservative support is lower among younger cohorts and especially among women aged 18-24. So, we want to listen and learn from women across the country to hear how we can improve.

The initiative was run as a joint venture between the Conservative Women’s Organisation and the Conservative Policy Forum. Between January and April 2021, we invited members to identify some of the policy areas that they think are most important and to work in groups to create policy ideas to tackle these issues. Overall, 502 participants contributed 356 ideas. See the appendix for further details.

Participants were then asked to work in groups of up to five people to describe specific policy areas that they agreed deserved greater attention. We analysed these responses and identified three common topics for further consideration by the CPF:

• promoting lifelong training

• supporting family life

• addressing the adult social care challenge

The top suggestions from the “Tell №10” participants will be incorporated into the confidential final CPF report sent to the Party’s leadership team and the PM’s Policy Unit.

Instructions

Choose one or more of the three topics prioritised by “Tell №10” and outline the basics of the best policy that your group would propose that meets the stated aim.

Your policy proposals should include a concise explanation of what is proposed, outline a clear set of “SMART” objectives (i.e. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) and also identify what unintended consequences might be anticipated if the proposal is implemented.

• Statement of Problem: Problem the policy will solve

• Proposal: Concise explanation of what is proposed

• Objectives: “SMART” goals, i.e. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound

• Potential unintended consequences: What unintended consequences might be anticipated if the proposal is implemented?

1. Promoting lifelong training

The Challenge

• In 2020/21 there were 1,168,100 learners enrolled in adult government-funded further education:

• Females account for 59.2% (691,100).

• Higher level (level 4 or above) participation increased by 21.2%, to 172,700 from 142,500 in the previous year.

“Tell №10” called for even more to be done to promote and expand apprenticeships and vocational qualifications to be offered through workplace cooperation up to degree level. It would like to see an even greater focus on life skills taught as part of the national curriculum for England, such as business skills and economic literacy for mortgage and saving and pensions, while recognising that education is devolved in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It also questioned the level of differentiation between training routes for some professions, asking whether more could be done to widen access.

Our 2019 Manifesto

• We will create a new National Skills Fund worth £3 billion over the next Parliament. This fund will provide matching funding for individuals and SMEs for high-quality education and training. … The National Skills Fund will help to transform the lives of people who have not got onto the work ladder and lack qualifications, as well as people who are keen to return to work from, say, raising a family, or switch from one career to another. (p.36)

• We will create a prisoner education service focused on work-based training and skills. We will improve employment opportunities for ex-offenders, including a job coach in each prison. (p.18)

Previous CPF consultations

In response to the 2020 CPF consultations on workers and families and on public services, over 2‑in‑3 CPF Groups (68%) called for more support of in-work training. Specific suggestions included:

• Encourage even more apprenticeships and evening classes in colleges to teach adults skills.

• Create a resource hub to provide even more work experience of different careers, with better integration between upskilling programmes and pragmatic careers advice.

Recent Government Action

• Enshrining a Lifetime Skills Guarantee in our Skills for Jobs White Paper, setting out a blueprint for a post-16 education system that will ensure everyone can gain the skills they need to progress in work at any stage of their lives.

• Offering a free and fully-funded college course to adults without an A-level or equivalent qualification – providing them with skills valued by employers, and the opportunity to study at a time and location that suits them. This offer is available in England, and will be paid for through our National Skills Fund.

• Giving young people who have just left school the skills they need to find work in high-value sectors, such as engineering, construction and social care. We will provide £101 million to help 18 and 19 year olds to take high value courses at Levels 2 and 3 where work opportunities are not available.

• Making higher education loans more flexible, allowing adults and young people to choose the length and type of course that is right for them. We will make it easier for people to break up their study into segments, transfer credits between colleges and universities and enable more part-time study.

2. Supporting family life

The Challenge

• In 2020 there were 19.4 million families in the UK, an increase of 1.4% on the previous year, with a 7.4% increase over the decade from 2010 to 2020.

• There were 2.9 million lone parent families in 2020, which accounts for 14.7% of families.vi

• Over the longer-term, there has been a reduction in poverty rates since the late 1990s for children, pensioners and working-age parents.vii

“Tell №10”had concerns around the family-work interface. All participants were worried about childcare and the costs of family life. Participants were eager that families should be better supported. They also suggested that greater use could be made of volunteers and the charity sector alongside Family Hubs.

Our 2019 Manifesto

• A strong society needs strong families. We will improve the Troubled Families programme and champion Family Hubs to serve vulnerable families with the intensive, integrated support they need to care for children – from the early years and throughout their lives. (p.14)

• Raising a family should be the most fulfilling experience of your life. But for too many parents, the costs of childcare are a heavy burden. We want to give parents the freedom, support and choice to look after their children in the way that works best for them. We will establish a new £1 billion fund to help create more high quality, affordable childcare, including before and after school and during the school holidays. (p.15)

• And we will continue our efforts through the tax and benefits system to reduce poverty, including child poverty. Children should grow up in an environment with no limits to their potential – which is one of the reasons we are making it a priority to put more money in the pockets of low-paid workers and maintaining our commitment to free school meals. (p.17)

Previous CPF consultations

In response to the 2020 CPF consultation on workers and families, CPF Groups called for the government to do more to back long-term, stable relationships, particularly marriage and family life. Specific suggestions included:

• Provide the security of longer-term tenancy agreements.

• Encourage the availability of 95% mortgages and other alternative home-buying arrangements.

• Restrict gambling advertising.

Recent Government Action

• Replaced the ‘Troubled Families’ programme with the landmark ‘Supporting Families’ programme, assigning families a dedicated keyworker to resolve issues at an early stage and deliver a ‘whole family’ approach to tackling problems.

• Investing £14 million into Family Hubs to provide more integrated support services for families, including launching a National Centre for Family Hubs to offer specialist support, deliver training and share best practice on integrated family service models.

• Cutting the cost of childcare for over 280,000 working parents through our Tax-Free Childcare offer, which sees us provide an extra £2 for every £8 a parent pays into their Tax-Free Childcare account. First introduced in 2017, our offer is cutting the cost of childcare for working families by up to £2,000 per child per year, or £4,000 for disabled children.

• Acting on the Early Years Healthy Development Review, to improve how families and babies are supported during the first 1,001 days, including encouraging all local authorities to publish a Start for Life offer for parents.

3. Addressing the adult social care challenge

The Challenge

• The number and proportion of older people receiving state-supported long-term care is decreasing (~548,500 in 2019/20, down from ~587,500 in 2015/16).

• Larger decreases are seen for older adults supported in the community (~330,000 in 2019/20, down from ~359,300 in 2015/16).

• 2019-20 saw a small increase for those receiving care in a residential or nursing home setting.

• The trends for those aged 18-64 are more stable (~290,000 receive long-term support).

• Short-term support for those aged 65 and over has risen by ~7% in the last four years.

• The majority of carers (65.4%) have been carers for over five years. Almost a quarter (23.5%) have been caring for 20 years or more.

“Tell №10”expressed that there have been enough reviews of social care and that now is the time for reform. Families, they say, want to provide more care but often need even more support to do so.

Our 2019 Manifesto

• We will build a cross-party consensus to bring forward an answer that solves the problem, commands the widest possible support, and stands the test of time. That consensus will consider a range of options but one condition we do make is that nobody needing care should be forced to sell their home to pay for it. (p.12)

• We will also extend the entitlement to leave for unpaid carers, the majority of whom are women, to one week. (p.12)

• To help those looking after family members, especially women, we will support the main carer in any household receiving the Universal Credit payment. (p.17)

Previous CPF consultations

In response to the 2020 CPF consultation on public services, One-in-seven CPF Groups (14%) highlighted the need for a Dilnot-style solution for social care. Specific suggestions included:

• More tax incentives for taking care of relatives and being a carer.

• Supporting care in the home should be the prime objective.

• Replace nationally-set process targets, e.g. waiting lists, with local performance metrics focused on patient outcomes.

Recent Government Action

• Introducing a Health and Care Bill to join up our health and care services, so they can be better planned around patients’ needs, making it easier for doctors, nurses, carers and local government officials to work together to provide joined up services via an Integrated Care System.xiii

• Publishing new White Paper proposals to join up health and care services, including measures to make integrated care the default, reduce legal bureaucracy, and better support social care, public health and the NHS.xiv

• Separate proposals on social care reform will be brought forward later this year.14