This Notice has been issued in the name of the Cooperative Party National Executive Committee and the Policy Committee. If you are a member of the Party please get in touch, we would love to hear from you
“Today, we’re launching our policy process for 2021 – an opportunity to shape the campaigns and ideas of the Co-operative Party.
This year, the policy sub-committee were clear that, in the light of the Covid-19 crisis, we needed to refresh our policy on social care. We will explore how to go about fixing our broken social care system – learning from best practice in Wales where co-operative models are promoted, and listening to the experiences of care workers and service users on how we can create a system driven by our values, not profit.
And for the first time, members voted on the second topic – and I’m pleased to announce that after hundreds of you took part, the winning topic this year was high streets! The consultation will focus on revitalising our high streets and tackling empty shops, learning from innovative community-led initiatives in places like Dumfries in southern Scotland and Monkey Park in Chesterfield.
Every year, we consult on different policy topics, so that by the time the next General Election comes round, we have a comprehensive and up-to-date co-operative policy agenda. So if your preferred topic wasn’t picked this time, chances are we will be revisiting it again soon.
Taking part is our policy process is easy:
You can contribute by responding to our consultation: either with your own personal views in a “individual submission” or with your local party as a “group submission”.
To make a group submission, local parties can organise online meetings to debate the topics and write their response. We’ve put together some resources to help you organise an engaging policy meeting, which will be regularly added to and updated.
If you want to learn more about the topic before making your submission, attend your local regional conference! At each regional conference, we’ll be holding a policy debate on both of the chosen topics – so you can learn more about co-operative approaches to these issues.”
Chris Bain, Chair Policy sub Committee
Chris Bain 