Articles in the standing up for the many Category
Strong families are the heart of strong communities. In government Labour has made it our priority to support families – in work, in their pockets and in giving their children the best start. The best communities are those where families are strong and secure, where people are supported to make the best of their lives and free from crime and the fear of crime and where fair rules apply to all.
Labour believes in helping families give their children the best start in life. We have given parents of young children the right to request flexible working from their employer – and have now extended that to cover all parents of children up to sixteen. We have now extended paid maternity leave to nine months, from only thirteen weeks under the last government and mothers are now able to take a whole year off when they have a child. For the first time fathers have a right to paid paternity leave and in future parents will be able to choose to give the second six months of maternity leave to the father when mothers return to work.
We are opening a new Sure Start centre in every community, with 3,500 open by March this year. And free entitlement to a nursery place for every three and four-year-old will be extended to 15 hours a week from 12.5 hours this year with 10 hours a week for 65,000 two year olds by 2012.
Crime and anti-social behaviour cannot be allowed to ruin people’s lives. That is why we have introduced a neighbourhood police team in every community. This is having results: crime is falling and more criminals are being caught. But there is more to do. So we will protect police numbers and we give new guarantees on response times and a pledge that your neighbourhood policing team spends at least 80 per cent of its time on the beat in your community.
The challenge for the future is to continue to stand up for the hardworking majority, to help and support people to balance family life, safe and secure on their streets and in their neighbourhoods.
