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Angela Rayner has called on Labour colleagues to “step up and make that case” for the government’s achievements, saying it was important to stress policies were not about short-term fixes but “fundamental reforms”. Here are four areas where Labour is seeking to improve society – but faces a race against time before the next election to do so.
1. The NHS
This is in one sense an area where the government can claim quick-ish gains, with the boast that an additional 2m appointments have been created since the election, and promises to cut waiting times, a promise which hangs in the balance.
But at the same time, more fundamental change is needed to cope with an ageing population more prone to chronic conditions. Hence the NHS 10-year plan, set out earlier this month and intended to move the health service to a different model, one based less on acute hospital care and more on community hubs. Then there is the parallel process to find a working model for older people’s social care.
As with health, this combines the very immediate and the hugely knotty and long term. In the foreground is the political wreckage of the government’s attempt to shave £5bn off the annual welfare bill, primarily by tightening rules for personal independence payment, an idea dropped amid a massive Labour rebellion.
The context to that, of course, is the significant increase in the numbers of people receiving benefits for long-term sickness and disability, an area where the experts are not even clear precisely what is causing it, let alone how to alleviate it. This is likely to be a challenge for several governments to come.
3. Special educational needs (Send) provision
A subject just as pressing and controversial as welfare, and also one where there are no easy solutions on offer. Ministers have pledged a thorough examination of the current system, which is both increasingly expensive and the cause of much complaint and anguish for parents and children seeking to navigate it.
While ministers have guaranteed the continuation of some sort of statutory provision for Send pupils, this will not necessarily be via the current method of education, health and care plans, or EHCPs, despite the worries of campaigners. After the welfare debacle, expect much caution.
4. Local government
As is a common political truism, the things run by councils – bin collections, libraries, social care – are often the ones that voters notice most immediately. And it’s fair to say that in many cases, the impressions are not good.
Labour has already embarked on a shake-up of local government, combining a series of smaller councils and creating more mayoralties. This may simplify some things, but a much deeper malaise is the lack of money for local government, not helped by the reliance on a council tax system based on valuations last done in 1993. This is probably too big an ask for now, but at some point a government will have to get to grips with it.
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