and delivering high-quality relationships and sex education.
Support the education of children in care,
extend Pupil Premium Plus funding to children in kinship care,
and guarantee any child taken into care a school place within three weeks, if required to move schools.
Safeguard the future of our world-leading universities and the wellbeing of every student by:
and make sure there are no more retrospective raising of rates or selling-off of loans to private companies.
prioritising their work with students in schools and colleges
and requiring every university to be transparent about selection criteria.
Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the opportunity to flourish, no matter their background or personal circumstances.
Protecting their rights and wellbeing as children and ensuring they are properly nourished are top priorities.
Families come in all shapes and sizes, and parents should have the support and flexibility to juggle work with parenting as they see fit.
Flexible, affordable childcare and early years education is a critical part of our economic infrastructure and helps close the attainment gap between rich and poor.
It gives parents more choice over how to organise their lives and helps them return to work if they want to.
Lack of access to affordable childcare is a key driver of the gender pay gap.
But affordable childcare is only part of the picture.
We will also overhaul parental leave to give parents a genuine choice over how to manage things in the first months of their child’s life.
and introducing an extra use-it-or-lose-it month for fathers and partners, paid at 90% of earnings.
Ensure that all parents can access childcare that is flexible, affordable and fair by:
Give parents genuine flexibility and choice in the crucial early months by:
In the longer term, when the public finances allow, our ambition is to give all families (including self-employed parents, adoptive parents and kinship carers): Six weeks of use-it-or-lose-it leave for each parent, paid at 90% of earnings.
Support children in kinship care and their family carers, as set out in chapter 7.
and ensuring that payments cannot be used as a form of coercive control over domestic abuse survivors.
The cost-of-living crisis has caused huge financial hardship across the country and restricted the life chances of millions.
The Government response has been a series of patchy and short-term fixes.
Liberal Democrats believe that no one should fear for their future, struggle to put food on the table, or worry about heating their home.
Our aim is to make the UK the best place in the world to work, raise children and enjoy retirement by ensuring that proper support is in place for those who need it.
Set a target of ending deep poverty within a decade,
In addition, we will: Repair the broken benefits safety net by:
Increase Carer’s Allowance and expand eligibility for it by:
Make the benefits system work better for disabled people by:
Give everyone the chance to enjoy a decent retirement by:
and ensure working-age carers can save properly for retirement.
Fix the broken Statutory Sick Pay system, as set out in chapter 4.
Everyone deserves to feel safe in their own homes and communities.
But for too many people in the UK, that’s simply not the reality today.
The Conservatives have talked tough on crime, but failed even to get the basics right.
Their unnecessary cuts and ineffective use of resources have contributed to the rise in unsolved crimes as police forces are left overstretched and under-resourced.
Serious violence is destroying too many young lives.
Our communities are plagued by burglaries, fraud and anti-social behaviour, and far too many criminals are getting away with it.
Violence against women and girls remains horrifically high.
Huge backlogs in the courts are denying victims the justice they deserve.
Prisons are in crisis: overcrowded, understaffed and failing to rehabilitate offenders.
Liberal Democrats will prevent crime and build communities where people can truly feel safe, including by:
and strengthening the supervision of offenders in the community.
In addition, we will: Free up local officers’ time to focus on their communities by:
Help rebuild public trust in policing by: Scrapping Police and Crime Commissioners and replacing them with local Police Boards made up of councillors and representatives from relevant local groups,
while investing the savings in frontline policing.
Address staffing shortages in police forces by:
Ensure that survivors of domestic abuse are properly supported throughout the criminal justice system by:
Tackle the backlogs in the criminal courts and reduce the number of people in prison on remand by: