- Martyn Cook, NPF representative
The snap General Election caught almost everyone by surprise. Just as surprising to many – though not all – was the final result: Labour coming from way behind in the polls to make historic gains and putting us within touching distance of government.
Most activists and commentators agreed that one of the main contributing factors to Labour’s bold advance was the ‘For The Many’ manifesto.
Although the final draft was written at short notice, much of the groundwork and political direction that it pointed towards was base on work undertaken by the National Policy Forum and ordinary members who have been making submissions and discussing policy motions at CLPs and Conference.
There is an acceptance that there is still further work that is required to further improve the manifesto we stood on earlier this year. As such, the Joint Policy Committee (the sort-of executive committee of the NPF) has put out a timetable for the coming year.
Below is an edited version of the notice that NPF reps have received and also contains information on how you can get involved:
Using the manifesto as a launching pad for the next stage of policy development, the JPC has agreed eight priority policy areas for consideration this year — one for each of the policy commissions (Early Years, Education and Skills; Economy, Business & Trade; Environment, Energy & Culture; Health & Social Care; Housing, Local Government & Transport; International; Justice & Home Affairs; Work, Pensions & Equality).
Commissions are asked to work up policy in these priority areas, taking evidence and listening to the views of the Party. The programme of activity will see Commissions drawing up initial consultation documents for consideration at a spring NPF meeting. Party members will be asked for their views on these with Commissions asked to consider evidence received before reporting on their work this year in the NPF Annual Report to Conference 2018.
As well as the eight areas identified as a priority, Commissions will also continue to consider all submissions received from members and supporters as well as considering topical issues throughout the year.
Members will shortly receive details of how they can get involved with the work of the NPF. Details of the NPF activity, consultation papers and resources will be made available via mailings and on the policy forum website.
Policy Commission meetings
The first policy commission meetings of this cycle begin next week. Policy Development staff have been in touch with commissions members. Meetings will look at activity for the year ahead, discuss consultation areas and review submissions made to Labour Policy Forum and conference reports.
National Policy Forum meeting
I am pleased to inform you that the JPC has agreed that the next meeting of the NPF will be held on the weekend of 17-18 February 2018.
Labour Policy Forum: www.policyforum.labour.org.uk
We have recently made a number of improvements to the Labour Policy Forum to improve data capture, including: a new submissions page, easier navigation, and category tag.
Along with your submissions reports, we will provide a short overview of the submissions received to each policy commission to help you find the most popular discussion topics on the website.
You can also follow news from the NPF on Twitter @labpolicyforum.
If you have any questions about anything covered in this email, or would like help using Labour Policy Forum, please do email the policy development team at policydevelopment@labour.org.uk