The upcoming General Election on July 4th 2024 is a crucial moment for care-experienced children and young people across the United Kingdom. As political parties share their visions for the future, it is essential to understand how they plan to support some of our most vulnerable individuals, making sure they have the support and opportunities needed to thrive.
At NYAS (National Youth Advocacy Service), we are committed to making sure you have the information you need to make your voices heard. That's why we have put together a clear, unbiased breakdown of what each party's manifesto says about care-experienced children and young people. We're not here to sway your opinion; we’re simply sharing the facts so you can view what each political party has committed.
Why does this matter? Because the promises made during this election can shape the quality of care, support and opportunities available to these young people. NYAS will always be on the side of the child, but your awareness and engagement can make a real difference - helping to build a future where every care-experienced child and young person can thrive.
Explore the boxes below to see what each party has promised, as it relates to care-experienced children and young people. For further information, please view each parties manifesto in full by following the links within. Together, let's make sure the next UK Government put children and young people first.
Commitments to care-experienced children and young people:
• Create more places in children’s homes and prioritise keeping families together through the Kinship Care Strategy (p.18).
• Support care leavers through housing, education, and employment, and expanding mentoring and befriending schemes (p.18).
Commitments to improving children's social care:
• Deliver a Family Hub in every local authority in England (p.18).
• Give local authorities a multi-year funding settlement to support social care (p.40).
• Implement reforms to cap social care costs from October 2025 (p.40).
Other commitments impacting children and young people:
• Assess child benefit on a household basis rather than an individual basis (p.18).
• Ban the use of mobile phones during the school day on statutory footing (p.4).
• Build on the existing responsibilities set out for social media companies under the Online Safety Act (p.19).
• Deliver additional funding for maternal safety and improve access to mental health services for new mums (p.42).
• Introduce a mandatory National Service for all school leavers at 18 (p.4).
• Legislate to create a register of children not in school (p.27).
• Pass a Renters Reform Bill (p.53).
For more information, please view the Conservative Party manifesto.
Commitments to care-experienced children and young people:
• Fund councils to extend staying put arrangements to keep young people with foster parents until they are 21 (p.6).
• Push for children in foster care, or who have been adopted, to have access to a trained counsellor until it is no longer required (p.6).
Commitments to improving children's social care:
• Invest £3bn to enable local authorities to provide high-quality children’s social care (p.6).
Other commitments impacting children and young people:
• Abolish the two-child benefit cap (p.19).
• Abolish the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) (p.29).
• Ensure children and young people are never strip searched without an appropriate adult present, and only in very exceptional circumstances (p.41).
• Introduce Universal Basic Income (p.19).
• Provide a trained counsellor in every school and sixth-form college (p.4).
• Provide free school meals for all children (p.29).
• Push for more accessible and prompt mental health assessments for children and adolescents (p.4).
For more information, please view the Green Party manifesto.
Commitments to care-experienced children and young people:
• Work with local government to support children in care, including through kinship, foster care, and adoption (p.81)
Commitments to improving children's social care:
• Improve data sharing across services to better identify children who may fall through the cracks of public services (p.81).
• Strengthen regulation of the children’s social care sector (p.81).
Other commitments impacting children and young people:
• Break down barriers to opportunity by reforming childcare and education (p.12).
• Develop a strategy to reduce child poverty (p.79).
• Establish a youth guarantee of access to training, an apprenticeship, or support to find work for all 18- to 21-year-olds (p.43).
• Give 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote in all elections (p.109).
• Introduce new legal safeguards around strip-searching children and young people (p.69).
• Make criminal exploitation of children an offence (p.66).
• Provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school (p.84).
• Provide Young Futures Hubs in every community with drop-in mental health support (p.84).
• Work with the Senedd to consider devolution of youth justice (p.112).
For more information, please view the Labour Party manifesto.
Commitments to care-experienced children and young people:
• Appoint a Minister for Children and Young People (p.47).
• Create a National Care Agency to set national minimum standards of care. (p.30).
• Develop a weekly allowance for all kinship carers (p.40).
• Enable individuals to transfer their care package (p.38).
• Incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into UK law (p.48).
• Introduce a statutory definition of Kinship Care (p.40).
• Make care experience a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 (p.40).
Commitments to improving children's social care:
• Address the underfunding of children’s mental health services, youth services and youth justice services (p.48).
• Make all parental pay and leave day-one rights, including for adoptive parents and kinship carers (p.48).
• Recruit more staff to the sector with a social care workforce plan, including includes ethical international recruitment (p.40).
Other commitments impacting children and young people:
• End out-of-area mental health placements by increasing capacity and coordination between services (p.32) and extend young people’s mental health services up to the age of 25 (p.32).
• Extend free school means to all children in poverty (p.47).
• Modernise the Mental Health Act to strengthen people’s rights, give them more choice and control over their treatment and prevent inappropriate detentions (p.33).
• Open walk-in hubs for children and young people in every community (p.32).
• Remove the two-child limit and benefit cap (p.51).
• Set up an independent advocacy body for children’s safety online (p.48).
For more information, please view the Liberal Democrats manifesto.
Commitments to care-experienced children and young people:
• Support further pilots of Universal Basic Income following findings of the care leaver pilot (p.41).
Commitments to improving children's social care:
• Support the elimination of profit from children's social care (p.16).
Other commitments impacting children and young people:
• Appoint a Minister for Justice for Wales (p.25) and a Victims Commissioner (p.26).
• Create a Welsh benefits system (p.40).
• Increase child benefit by £20 per week (p.39).
• Introduce Free School Meals for secondary schools (p.39).
• Scrap the two-child limit for Universal Credit payments (p.39).
• Support of multiannual funding settlements for third sector organisations to plan activities (p.16).
• Support the transfer of further powers from UK Government to the Senedd, including the criminal justice system (p.44).
For more information, please view the Plaid Cymru manifesto.
Commitments to care-experienced children and young people:
• tbc
Commitments to improving children's social care:
• tbc
Other commitments impacting children and young people:
• Develop a dedicated National Agency for Child Protective Services with local charities, councils and health services (p.12).
• Promote child-friendly app restricted smartphones (p.20).
• Launch an inquiry into Social Media Harms (p.20).
For more information, please view the Reform UK draft 'Contract with You'.
Please note, Reform UK policy commitments have been identified from the political party’s working draft titled, ‘Our Contract with You’. As a live article, commitments will be updated following publication of their manifesto.
Commitments to care-experienced children and young people:
• tbc
Commitments to improving children's social care:
• tbc
Other commitments impacting children and young people:
• tbc
As a live article, commitments will be updated following publication of their manifesto.
This article aims to identify manifesto commitments made by political parties relating to children and young people during the 2024 General Election. It is not intended to promote or support any particular political parties or candidates, and must not be used for this purpose. As a live article, additional commitments will be updated following publication.
If you or someone you know is worried about the next general election, you can call the NYAS helpline for support on 0800 808 1001.
NYAS' Calls for Change
On May 29th, NYAS was proud to publish our Election Manifesto which outlines four key objectives that are critical to advancing children’s rights and building a future where every care-experienced child and young person can thrive. We call on the next UK Government to:
- Protect and advance the rights of all children and young people.
- Reform children’s social care to make sure every child is supported, safeguarded, and empowered.
- Put children and young people at the heart of government, making sure their voices are heard and their interests represented.
- Meaningfully engage with children and young people when important decisions are are being made that affect their lives.