Charities claim party manifestos ignore vulnerable

Vulnerable children and young people were overlooked by the three main political parties in their election manifestos last week, disappointed charities have claimed.

Campaigners are now setting their own lists of demands, and lobbying prospective parliamentary candidates, claiming the main policies outlined by Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats did little to help the most at-risk groups of young people.

Caroline Slocock, chief executive of Refugee and Migrant Justice, criticised politicians for failing to consider asylum-seeking children. “We were saddened to see none of the leading parties have made proposals to help them,” she explained. “We help a large number of these children, many of whom have endured lengthy journeys and harrowing experiences. Children we speak to feel reluctant to appeal against poor decisions to refuse them protection. They simply want to give up.”

Slocock called on the parties to adopt the policy of providing an independent guardian to all asylum-seeking children, as well as access to early legal representation and targets on the maximum time children can be held in detention centres.

Tara Flood, director of the Alliance for Inclusive Education, claimed the manifestos fell flat in terms of narrowing inequalities in the education system. Policies advocating establishing schools outside local authority control pose a threat, she warned. “The agenda is to slowly remove government accountability for education,” she said. “Academies’ track record on including children with special educational needs (SEN) is poor.”

Flood urged all parties to make disability equality training compulsory for school staff and to give disabled and SEN children the legal right to attend mainstream courses.

Susan Daniels, chief executive of the National Deaf Children’s Society, criticised the manifestos for failing to highlight the need to improve social care services for disabled children. “With all parties talking about efficiency savings, it is vital the often invisible groups, like deaf children, stay high on the political agenda,” she said.

John Kemmis, chief executive of Voice, urged parties to take looked-after children seriously. “We would hope there could be cross-party consensus, so we could get ringfenced funding for these children,” he said.