CLP Youth Officers Training – 9th January On 9th January I delivered a training session at London Region HQ to CLP youth officers in London. It was a great opportunity for CLP YOs to give me feedback and ask questions. Over the past few months I’ve been working with the party to develop training resources as set out in my paper than I took to the NEC in September. So far I have helped develop a booklet for CLP youth officers and delivered training in the Liverpool, East Midlands, Southend, Eastern region, Wales and London. You can find the booklet here. Next month I will also be doing a live webinar for CLP youth officers to round off this training package. The live webinar will be recorded and available for others to watch. My aim over the next few months is to develop more training for young members so if you have any ideas about what you would live to see please get in touch. NEC Equalities Committee meeting – 17th January Elections At this meeting we elected the chair and the vice chairs of the NEC committee. The results were as following: Chair – Keith Birch Vice Chair Youth – Jasmin Beckett Vice Chair LGBT – James Asser Vice Chair BAME – Keith Vaz Vice Chair Women – Ann Black Vice Chair Disability – James Asser Women’s Conference After conference an NEC working group was set up to decide the logistics of the new Women’s Conference. Labour Party Conference in September 2016 voted to give policy-making powers to Women’s Conference and we are working hard to get this up and running as soon as possible. Due to the amount of work that goes into holding such a large conference the Women’s Conference in 2017 will be held immediately before Annual Conference in Brighton. However, the working group is currently considering whether in future years this conference should be moved to be a standalone conference with some separation from annual conference in September. Women delegates elected to their CLPs will be able to attend women’s conference to vote whilst the conference will also be open to observers so that the conference is accessible. We are still looking at financial and staffing costs for the conference and will be meeting again in the next week to discuss this. Safeguarding officer and Complaints The NEC was informed of the appointment of the party’s new Safeguarding Officer. I will be setting up a meeting with them in the next month to discuss the safeguarding of young members and vulnerable young adults in our party. I am committed to working with our new Safeguarding Officer to make Young Labour a safe space for all young members. The Governance and Legal Unit have been working on making Labour’s complaints procedure more fit for a party with 540,000 members. The new Safeguarding Officer will act as the main point of contact for people wishing to report abuse which will make the process more transparent and fair. Women’s PLP Report – Jess Philips MP Jess Philips MP, chair of the women’s PLP presented the women and equalities committee report on Women in the House of Commons after the 2020 report. The NEC Equalities committee discussed our commitment to ensuring we look to expand the use of All Women Shortlists especially in light of the boundary changes which may significantly impact the amount of women MPs (especially BAME women). We will be working hard over the next few months to look at the best way of expanding this. The report also calls for UK political parties to select at least 45% women as parliamentary and local candidates by 2030. Jess also talked about the Jo Cox foundation and its work in seeking a more family friendly parliament which is a huge barrier to women participating in politics. It is so important our structures are fit for the 21st century. Shadow Women’s and Equalities Team Report – Sarah Champion MP Next Sarah Champion spoke about her work as Shadow Women and Equalities minister. She talked of the work being done by the team on women in the economy tackling violence against women, FGM and maternity discrimination. She talked of the work on plans to establish an All Party-Parliamentary group on FGM. Finally, she praised work done by Paula Sheriff on consumer inequality which includes the difference in prices of male and female razors and VAT on women’s sanitary products. Representation of Disabled Members It was noted that disabled members still are hugely underrepresented in all areas of the party and the importance of making selection processes more accessible to those who define as disabled. A consultation on disabled member’s issues has been sent to CLP secretaries, so get in touch with your CLP if you wish to contribute to this important consultation. NEC Disputes Panel – 17th January Elections Ann Black (incumbent) was elected chair of disputes panel. CLPs in special measures We discussed various CLPs which remain in special measures. Again, the NEC disputes panel stressed the importance of working with CLPs to get them out of special measures as soon as possible. I stressed the importance of ensuring CLPs were a welcoming space for young members, especially those under the age of 18. We agreed it is also important for the party to give training and support to local CLPs and role holders to tackle issues arising. NEC Organisation Sub-Committee – 17th January Elections Chair – Jim Kennedy Vice Chair – Cath Speight CLP Motions and Contemporary Resolutions We read through the recent motions from CLPs and affiliates which were noted by the NEC. CLP and branch quorums Ann Black has provided research of CLPs looking at the rules around meeting a quorum at CLP and branch meetings. The current quorum is 25% but as membership has now grown to half a million (over 4000 members in some CLPs) it is clear that the majority of CLPs and branches feel this ought to be changed. Various quorum levels were discussed and recommendations will be made to regions. Northern Ireland I have recently received many emails from young members regarding standing candidates in Northern Ireland. Elections will be taking place in Northern Ireland in March 2017 and we will not be standing candidates in these elections. Prior to me taking up my position on the NEC the NEC agreed standing candidates in Parliament would be reviewed again after the 2015 General Election. That review was supposed to occur last year, and the NEC agreed a panel of committee members to conduct the review. However, the leadership election and other events last year made it impossible for NEC members to carry out that work in 2016. The Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, General Secretary and Labour Party officials have been in discussion and are working to establish a timetable that will allow the review to take place as soon as practicably possible this year. However, the announcement of elections for the Assembly means we cannot conduct that work until those are complete on March 2nd. The NEC panel intend to visit Ireland and Northern Ireland shortly after these elections to consult with relevant stakeholders and Party members on the question of whether the Labour Party should stand candidates in Northern Ireland. Until the conclusion of that review, the Party’s agreed position remains that Labour will not stand candidates at any election in Northern Ireland. As stated this will be looked up in the upcoming year and I would like to ask for member’s opinions on this. So if you have a strong view on either side of this debate please get in touch: [email protected] Donald Trump protest – 30th January It has been such a dramatic start to 2017 with Donald Trump taking office and I have been disgusted by his executive orders, especially the one being labelled a ‘Muslim ban’. Theresa May as the leader of our country is in a position to be strong and as a key ally to the USA put pressure on Donald Trump to row back on such archaic policies. Young Labour members were out up and down the country on 30th January to stand in solidarity with those who are being barred from getting back into their own country purely based on their faith. I was out in Liverpool with Liverpool Young Labour members to show my disgust. You can find the petition to prevent Donald Trump from making a state visit to the UK, which has now reached over 1.7 million signatures: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/171928/ Children and Education NPF Committee meeting – 1st February In my role as an NEC member I also sit on Labour’s National Policy Forum and therefore on an NPF policy commission – Education and Skills. Update from Angela Rayner MP – Shadow Education Minister Angela Rayner MP firstly updated us on the work she has been doing. She emphasised that the reintroduction of grammar schools is a serious threat to social mobility, we have more children from working class backgrounds going on to further education than ever before and to risk that would be a disgrace. The reintroduction of grammar schools is nothing but an ideological bargaining chip from Theresa May who is playing politics with children’s education. Since getting into power the Tories have scrapped EMA, maintenance grants for the poorest students, BTEC and vocational courses and now they are trying to bring back a regressive system. General comments There were comments from the commission of Labour not being brazen enough in 2015. We must think more about what high quality education looks like in early years’ education. It was remarked that there are 3 attributes important in early years’ education derived from research: self regulation, playfulness and oral communication. We also looked at focussing on children’s emotional development rather than introducing competition at such an early age. Education should be for life not just for employment. Angela said her and her team have looked at the Finland model of education who don’t have formal education until later but focus on early years’ education for longer. Finally, we spoke about mental health and issues faced by school children with CAHMS, however it was noted that this topic falls under the Health Commission. The next meeting of the commission will be in March. Equalities Academy and my thoughts on Reclaiming the Internet I wrote a blog for the Young Labour website on the Reclaim the Internet campaign to tie in with our Equalities Academy. Check it out here. If you have any questions with regards to this report please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me: [email protected] Jasmin Beckett NEC Youth Rep
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AuthorHere are my Monthly NEC Youth Rep reports and my full NEC meeting reports, starting from March 2016 I'll keep this updated so you know what's going on. Archives
January 2018
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