In the wake of Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls’ speech to the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth yesterday, national children’s charity 4Children has gained the support of hundreds of conference delegates for its radical blueprint for change for families across communities in Britain. Coming just two days after the Prime Minister Gordon Brown put families at the heart of his agenda for Government, the charity’s Manifesto for Children and Young People delivers a route map to the Secretary of State Ed Balls to ending inequalities and shattering lifelong cycles of deprivation within communities.

Throughout the Labour Party conference, 4Children invited delegates to play the ‘Life Chances Lottery’ to highlight the stubborn link between circumstances of birth, including family, income and local area, and the prospects of good outcomes into adulthood. Delegates were invited to sign up to an eight-point Manifesto presented on the reverse of a roulette wheel highlighting the vast spectrum of potential outcomes for young people. The Manifesto outlines a set of urgent measures desperately needed to rebalance life chances for all and to extend opportunities to children in the poorest families and local areas in Britain. The winning lottery ticket was presented to Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls on the last day of the Labour Party Conference by children.

The Manifesto calls for:
1. A doubling of investment to end child poverty
2. A guarantee of access for all families to childcare
3. New rights of flexible working for all parents of children under 16
4. A national programme of workforce development for youth workers
5. A legal right to family group conferencing
6. A commitment to eradicate bullying by 2020
7. Free public transport for all under 18s
8. Free access to leisure for all young people

Anne Longfield OBE, Chief Executive of 4Children said, "The support of such large numbers of Labour party delegates underlines that support for children and young people is fundamental to the social justice agenda. This new manifesto for families published by 4Children sets out important needs in the battle to rebalance opportunities for children in the poorest communities, whilst promising an end to the lottery of life chances that is so damaging to people’s experiences as children and so corrosive to their potential as adults."

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