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The NPF meeting and implementing the Warwick Agreement
By Simon Burgess
Having only relatively recently become a vice-chair of the NPF it was important to me that the agenda of the forum reflected the wishes of its members. The biggest challenge was that the World Cup was on, with England playing Portugal on the second day. After asking some members of the forum, from around the country, the consensus was that the meeting should run up to the match so that those who wanted to watch it could do so in the bar, without being stuck half way home at the time it started.
With that vital issue sorted, but sadly not the result of the match, feedback from the last forum was that the workshops, when members get to tell ministers some harsh realities as well as good ideas, were too short - so they were extended for this one. Members had asked for more opportunity to discuss contemporary issues so there were Q&A's with ministers on energy policy, party funding and public service reform.
However just to show that you can never get things quite right there was some criticism afterwards that we had too many Q&A's, perhaps because the workshops were longer members found themselves going over the same issues twice. We always need to tweak agendas, but I'd rather a government minister heard our ideas and concerns twice, than not at all.
Finally, because it's what our members will need to get grips with, there's the new single policy document. This was a suggestion from the review of Partnership in Power - I'm not convinced that what was meant was something that has turned out as long as sticking all the old documents together but that's what we have from the policy commissions. I'd encourage CLPs and branches to pick a certain section/s to focus on so that members can engage with something of a manageable size. Please do get involved in the process - prioritise what interests your members/ your communities.
The Warwick Agreement
The final meeting of the NPF before the last election produced the Warwick Agreement - an historic agreement between all the party's shareholders: the unions, CLPs and government. This helped deliver us a third term and showed Partnership in Power at its best. Your NPF reps have been monitoring its implementation closely - the progress so far bodes well for the future positive relationship between the party's stakeholders.
Hazel Blears has produced a report on the progress that has been made in implementing the agreement. We have already circulated a copy of that report to our email list, but click on the menu left to read the report