THE BEST SERVICES FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG
PEOPLE
Manchester Labour puts Children’s Services at the centre of our
vision for a world class city, because young people are our City’s
future. We value young people and will ensure that the Council
provides services to enable them to fulfil their potential.
We will transform learning in Manchester with our ambitious
Building School for The Future programme.
The Labour Council is carrying out the biggest school building
programme in generations, and will complete the rebuild or
remodeling of all Secondary Schools in our City. This is about more
than bricks and mortar – and we will make the most of new
technology and educational thinking to create state of the art
learning environments.
We will use the Manchester Academies programme to help create 7
new schools, to provide opportunities for all our young people. We
will continue to develop the Manchester model of Academies so that
these schools work alongside the other schools in our city, and in
accordance with Council policies.
Taken together, our BSF and Academies programme will bring in
over £500million of investment into Manchester education.
Manchester Labour will implement the agreed proposals of the
primary schools review, and we will continue our primary school
building programme, with the aim of ensuring all our primary
buildings are fit for the 21st Century.
Manchester Labour believes that schools should be at the heart
of our communities. We will encourage greater community use of
school buildings, and challenge schools who make it difficult for
community groups to use these wonderful new facilities. We will
continue to support the expansion of breakfast clubs and after
school activities to provide wider opportunities and flexibility
for parents.
The integration of Children’s Services is promoting early
intervention, and providing a multi agency approach to young
peoples services. The new district working model is bringing
services closer to our communities and the review of Manchester
Education services means that so far, an extra £17.2 million has
been devolved or delegated to schools.
Educational attainment in Manchester is improving. This year’s
GCSE results were once again our best ever, but we need to make
faster progress, and we will continue to support and challenge
schools to achieve ever better results. Manchester is part of the
Greater Manchester challenge which will support under performing
schools, spread good practice and provide extra resources.
Forty–one primary schools are taking part in the Manchester Every
Child A Reader scheme. This initiative enables intensive support to
be given to young children who are falling behind their peers in
reading and writing. The results are sustainable and will
contribute to improvement in attainment, attendance and
behaviour.
Many Manchester Labour Party members are school governors,
demonstrating practical commitment to education in our communities.
We will support our governors by refocusing, and investing more
resources in our Governor support services including training and
providing a clerking service.
Improving attendance is a major priority for Manchester Labour.
We will continue our campaigns to promote good attendance, while
taking firm action against parents who let children miss school,
prosecuting parents who fail to take their responsibilities
seriously. We will make use of penalty notices and truancy sweeps.
We will continue to review and refocus our school attendance
improvement service. We will promote the use of learning mentors
and continue to recognize the importance of outdoor education.
Manchester Labour wants all young people to benefit from social,
learning and training and employment opportunities
We will ensure that the Labour Council works closely with
Connexions, continuing to reduce the numbers of young people not in
education, employment or training.
The Labour Council will provide ‘places to go and things to do’ for
all young people in Manchester. We will further develop integrated
services on a district basis. We will improve targeted support for
those young people most in need.
Manchester Labour has the best record of providing excellent
services for under 5s. We believe it is crucial for children to get
the right start in life, and we will continue to develop Sure
Start, bringing together education, early years and childcare
services to help achieve this. We will deliver our programme of 21
new Sure Start Centres.
Manchester has a very high number of children who are in need,
but we are committed to improving the life chances of all children
in the City. More support will be given to families to prevent
children having to be ‘looked after’ by the Council.
We believe that parents are responsible for their children and
will work with families to help them become good parents. We will
continue to invest in the parenting strategy as it has helped many
families. In particular, we are expanding Sure Start which
Manchester Labour believes gives children the best possible start
in life. We recognise that there will continue to be some
children who need to be ‘looked after’ by the Labour Council, but
we have opened new children’s homes in the City so that these
children can continue to live in the communities where they were
born and go to school.
| 
