The Following Selection of Resources Might Be Helpful

Concerned about young people? A youth worker? Encouraging young adults to vote in the upcoming election? The following selection of resources might be helpful…

Articles ‘10 Reasons Christians should vote in the election’ by Krish Kandiah - http://www.christiantoday.com/article/10.reasons.christians.should.vote.in.the.election/51056.htm

A leaflet published by The Church of England Education Office suggesting questions about education people might want to ask of the candidates - https://www.churchofengland.org/media/2207378/education%20and%20the%20election.pdf http://www.premieryouthwork.com/ has articles in their current issue of Youthwork magazine entitled: ‘The tip of the iceberg’ - Voting in this May’s General Election should only be the start of our engagement with politics, says Jamie Cutteridge ‘WHO WOULD JESUS VOTE FOR?’ If Jesus had UK citizenship today, what would he do in the forthcoming General Election? By Nigel Pilmott The February and March issues of Youthwork magazine included interviews with Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband and previous issues can be accessed on the website

The ‘Show Up’ Campaign Encouraging Christian young people to ‘show up’ and vote in the upcoming election and take an active interest in politics as part of mission. There’s a short video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXLCcRaGx48 and further information and helpful links can be found at http://www.christiansinpolitics.org.uk/showup/

Books ‘Embracing the Passion: Christian youth work and politics’ by CEO of Frontier Youth Trust Nigel Pimlott ‘Just Politics’ by Krish Kandiah for the 2010 election but with relevance today ‘Those who show up’ by Andy Flannagan

Manifesto Overviews NCVYS (National Council for Voluntary Youth Services) have pulled out the areas in the Party Manifestos regarding young people:

Conservative Party: Education  Pledge to put a University Technical College within reach of every city and increase the use of destination data about further education courses.  Pledge to require all secondary school pupils to take GCSEs in English, Maths, a science, language and history or geography.  Pledge that the free school and academy programme will continue, with at least 500 new free schools opening in the next Parliament. Apprenticeships  Pledge to use the money saved in reducing the benefits cap to fund 3 million apprenticeships. Democracy  Pledge to offer up to 15 million workers three days of paid leave a year for volunteering.  Pledge to continue expansion of the National Citizen Service scheme, providing a guaranteed place for all 16 and 17 year olds that want one.  Pledge to build on Big Society public service reform package and introduce legal support for volunteering and build on youth engagement programmes.  Commitment to maintain the Lobbyying Act. Health and Social Care  Pledge to join up health and social care through the Better Care Fund.  Pledge to “eliminate child poverty” through “recognising the root causes of poverty; entrenched worklessness, family breakdown, problem debt and drug and alcohol dependency”. Welfare  Pledge to reform the benefits system - cutting housing benefit for 18-21 year olds.  EU families will have to have lived in the UK for four years before being able to claim child benefit or be considered for council housing. Employment  Pledge to ban zero-hours contracts that stop you from working elsewhere. Income Tax  Pledge to raise the personal allowance from £10,600 to £12,500. Housing  Pledge to build 200,000 homes for first time buyers in England and introduce a new bank account to help young people save for a house where every £1 saved towards a deposit will have 25p added to it by the government (up to £200 a month and a total of £12,000). Childcare  Pledge to double the current free universal allocation of 15 hours a week to 30 hours a week.

Labour Party: Education  Students will continue to study English and Maths to age 18 and undertake work experience between the ages of 14 and 16.  Teachers will be able to attain a new ‘Master Teacher’ status.  Plan to spend £50 million on careers advice.  Pledge to cut tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000 per year and increase grants by £400 from September 2016. Apprenticeships  Pledge to “create a gold-standard system of technical education and training, and the guarantee of an apprenticeship for every school leaver with the grades” by 2020. Employment  Introduction of a ‘Compulsory Jobs Guarantee’ that will “provide a paid starter job for every young person unemployed for over a year, a job which they will have to take or lose benefits”.  Pledge to raise the minimum wage to “more than £8 per hour” by October 2019 and ban zero hours contracts.  Pledge to tackle the growth of unpaid internships by guaranteeing that interns working for more than four weeks are paid at least the minimum wage. Welfare  Pledge to ”replace out of work benefits for 18 to 21 year olds with a new Youth Allowance dependent on recipients being in training and targeted at those who need it most”. Democracy  Pledge give 16 and 17 year olds the vote by May 2016 and improve the curriculum for citizenship education.  Pledge to repeal the Lobbying Act and protect the freedom of civil society to campaign. Crime and Justice  Pledge to extend the Youth Justice Board model by piloting a new approach to 18-20 offenders incentivising Local Authorities, policy and probation.  Pledge to embed restorative justice right across the youth justice system and reform stop and search by “making it clear in law that stopping someone on the basis of the colour of their skin is illegal, discriminatory and wrong”. Housing  Pledge to build 200,000 homes a year in England by 2020, with priority given to local first-time buyers. Childcare  Pledge to extend the current free universal allocation of 15 hours a week to 25 hours a week.

Liberal Democrats: Education  Pledge to protect the education budget for two to 19 year olds including an allowance for rising learner numbers. The budget is currently at £49.2 billion and they plan to increase it to £55.3 billion by 2020.  Pledge to see all state schools using qualified teachers.  Pledge to ensure that pupils have sex education lessons. Democracy  Pledge give 16 and 17 year olds the vote. Housing  Pledge to allow 18-30 year olds to borrow up to £1,500 from the government for a deposit which would have to be paid off within two years.  Pledge to increase house building to 300,000 a year in England and introduce a ‘rent to own scheme’. Travel  Pledge to introduce a bus pass for young people, giving 16-21 year olds two thirds off all bus travel. Income Tax  Pledge to raise personal tax allowance from £10,600 to £12,500.

UKIP: Education  Pledge to ease teachers’ workloads by cutting down on assessments, data collection and appraisals  Pledge to end sex education for primary school children  Pledge to make First Aid training part of the national curriculum. Immigration  UKIP say their pledge to control immigration will help ease the pressure on young people trying to find a job.  Pledge to introduce a points based system so only people with certain skills are allowed into the country to work. Income Tax  Pledge to raise the personal allowance from £10,600 to £13,500 to the level of a full time minimum wage. Apprenticeships  Pledge to introduce an ‘Apprenticeship Qualification’.

Plaid Cymru: Education  Pledge to give more support to university students studying science, technology, engineering or maths subjects who stay in Wales. Employment  Pledge to introduce a living wage for all employees by 2020.  Pledge to create 50,000 extra jobs by giving more public sector contracts to Welsh firms. Income Tax  Pledge to increase the level at which National Insurance contributions are paid to the same level as income tax. Democracy  Pledge to give 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote.

Green Party: Education  Pledge to scrap university tuition fees Employment  Pledge to increase the minimum wage to £10 per hour by 2020 and introduce a maximum 35-hour working week.  Pledge to ban zero-hours contracts. Democracy  Pledge to give 16 and 17 year olds the vote. Health  Pledge to decriminalise cannabis and treat drug addiction as a health problem. Welfare  Pledge to ask for public opinion on introducing a Basic Income, a fixed amount paid to every individual across the UK. Travel  Pledge to introduce an immediate 10% cut to public transport fares and promote cycling and walking to reduce pollution and improve health. Youth Justice  Will place an emphasis on reducing stop and search powers "which damage police and youth relations" and will "greatly expand the use of restorative justice."

Scottish National Party: Education  Pledge to support an increase to 30,000 Modern Apprenticeships and the expansion of the Education Maintenance Allowance to an extra 22,000 school pupils and students. Employment  Pledge to increase the minimum wage rate for 18 to 21 year olds to £6.86 by 2020 and believe the same rate should be paid to apprentices and also support an increase in the rate for 16 to 18 year olds to £5.07. Spending  Pledge a modest spending increase of 0.5 per cent a year, enabling at least £140 billion extra investment in the economy and public services. The £100bn due to be spent on Trident to be spend on education, the NHS and better childcare instead. Democracy  Pledge to give 16 and 17 year olds the vote in UK general and European elections.  Pledge to support strict rules on lobbying but believe that campaigning charities should be allowed straight- forward access and restrictions on their activities as ‘non-party campaigners’ should be removed.