Bromley should be a borough where children, young people, families and older residents all feel supported and able to thrive. Instead, too many parents of children with SEND have had to battle the Council for support, and older residents and carers have been left to navigate fragmented services on their own. Bromley Labour will join up support across health, education and care so that people get help early, close to home and with far less fighting for what they are entitled to.

Summary

• Supporting older residents
• Caring for carers
• SEND to support children and parents
• Invest in a modern youth service and create work experience opportunities
• Facilitating more affordable childcare locally
• Better care, closer to home
• Accessible local services for residents with disabilities
• A borough where everyone feels welcome
• Bromley health and wellbeing matters

5.1 Supporting older and retired residents

Older residents must be able to live safely, independently and with dignity. Bromley has one of the highest proportions of older people in London, yet support has not kept pace with need.

5.1.a Better access to health, social care and support

We will:

• Work with the NHS to reduce waiting times for community services
• Improve joint working between GPs, social care and support workers
• Expand access to occupational therapy, telecare and reablement
• Strengthen practical home support to help residents remain independent
• Work with other South East London and Kent boroughs to co-ordinate approaches to negotiation with the domiciliary care and care home markets, to reduce the ability of providers to play us off against each other – and scope out new approaches that may improve our collective bargaining power

5.1.b Neighbourhood check-ins for isolated older residents

We will launch an opt-in programme linking volunteers, libraries and community groups to support isolated older residents through:

• Regular wellbeing calls or visits
• Signposting to activities and support groups
• A clear escalation pathway for safeguarding concerns

5.1.c Tackling loneliness

We will:

• Use libraries, community centres and churches as warm, social daytime hubs
• Support befriending schemes, walking groups, arts clubs and local activity sessions
• Provide small grants for organisations that tackle loneliness

5.1.d Fairer, more affordable care

We will:

• Improve pay, training and stability for care workers
• Expand in house adult care services where this delivers the best outcomes for residents and the best value for money
• Guarantee named contacts and clear care plans for families
• Review private provider contracts to ensure they deliver dignity and value

5.1.e Supporting unpaid carers

We will:

• Develop a Carers’ Rights Information Pack for all new carers
• Expand respite care availability
• Improve access to carers assessments
• Strengthen support for carers within GP practices
• Continue to invest in the Bromley Dementia Hub and dementia-related support and care services, as a priority, for dementia carers

5.1.f Making Bromley an age-friendly borough

We will:

• Improve pavements, crossings, lighting and bus stop accessibility
• Expand benches, sheltered seating and publicly accessible toilets
• Create age-friendly zones in key high streets and town centres
• Work with TfL to improve bus reliability and accessibility

5.1.g Warm, safe and energy efficient homes for older people

We will:

• Help older residents access insulation and energy efficiency grants
• Prioritise older people’s homes in retrofit and repair programmes
• Promote warm home initiatives with trusted partners
• Improve take up of winter support schemes

5.1.h. Protecting older residents from scams and fraud

We will:

• Deliver scam awareness workshops and digital safety sessions
• Develop a trusted trader scheme to protect against doorstep fraud
• Improve support for victims of financial scam

5.2 SEND reform

Too many parents and children with Special Educational Needs face a years-long battle with Bromley Council to get the provision they need rather than receiving support. The Conservative Administration prefer to spend money on legal fees forcing families trying to get EHCPs, or enforce the provision their child’s EHCP specifies to tribunal, and the lack of local provision forces parents to send children out of borough to get an education.

We will:

• Reform SEND services to work with families, not against them, reducing the council’s spend on lawyers to reject EHCPs only to force parents through lengthy appeals processes
• Improve communication and consistency from education officers
• Provide better training for staff
• Reduce reliance on tribunals by handling cases properly the first time
• Working with local schools to adequately fund in-school provision and ensure local schools can meet a child’s needs

5.3 A modern youth service that works for Bromley’s young people

Youth services in Bromley have seen massive cuts under the Conservative administration during the years of coalition and Conservative government. Youth centres across the borough have been closed and the offering for most young people in our borough is practically non-existent. In the latest round of sell-offs, two of the remaining four youth centres in the borough face closure and moving into children and families’ centres – depriving young people of spaces designed for them and opportunities for skills development and opportunities. Bromley Labour wants to improve youth services and start to reverse this decline.

We will work with trusted local charities to deliver:

• New youth clubs focused in our most deprived communities
• A modern youth service focused on skills development and mentoring
• Co-production of services with young people having a real role in shaping service design and youth engagement
• Outdoor learning and volunteering opportunities
• Targeted programmes for young people most at risk
• Routes into apprenticeships, training and employment

5.4 A borough-wide work experience scheme

We will introduce a cross-council work experience programme for 16 to 19 year olds, offering placements across:

• IT and digital services
• Social care and early years
• Libraries, housing and customer services
• Finance, planning and environmental services

Labour nationally will guarantee access to training, an apprenticeship or support to find work for 18 to 21 year olds, including two weeks’ work experience.

Bromley Labour will play our part by:

• Ensuring every young person in Bromley can access meaningful work experience in the council or with partner organisations
• Linking local work experience offers to apprenticeships and training routes created through the Bromley Skills and Jobs Partnership

5.5 Equal recognition for kinship carers

Give kinship carers equal recognition to foster carers for the vital role they play.

• Introduce fair, consistent financial support, ensuring kinship carers are not penalised for stepping up
• Guarantee access to advice, training, and emotional support for all kinship carers
• Put children first, recognising that stability with family should never come at the cost of poverty

5.6 Better care close to home

We will:

• Expand council-owned children’s homes and adult care services, where this delivers the best outcomes and best value for money – investing in in-borough provision of homes for vulnerable young people
• Commit to a robust feasibility study of in-housing care home provision (buying or building and running our own homes) and commit to presenting a costed options paper to councillors
• Investigate the persistently sub-optimal utilisation rate of existing Extra Care Housing and work with providers to ensure full use of high-quality ECH schemes (before opening any further housing with care)
• Reduce reliance on expensive private placements
• Improve staff training and retention to strengthen continuity of care
• Work with NHS partners to align support more closely to residents’ needs
• Evaluate the implementation and impact of the Assistive Technology offer in Bromley, and seek to increase uptake of appropriate technologies by people with moderate levels of need who can be supported early to live independently
• Work closely with the NHS to ensure that the proactive care of people with frailty, multiple long-term conditions and approaching the end of life robustly includes social care, and that local voluntary sector services are funded to support people to live independently as far as possible as part of that proactive, multi-disciplinary approach

Bromley Labour will also back co-operative approaches in care where they improve quality and control for residents and staff.

We will:

• Encourage the growth of micro-businesses in health and adult social care that embed co-operative principles, particularly where they improve continuity of care and local employment
• Support existing social care providers that wish to convert to co-operative or mutual ownership, working with co-operative development agencies to manage the transition in a way that protects staff and service users

5.7 Affordable childcare and early years

High quality, affordable childcare is essential for children’s development and for parents who want to work or study.

We will:

• Protect Bromley’s remaining council-run nursery provision and oppose Conservative plans to close it
• Expand the service by linking nurseries to our Children and Family Centres, creating more affordable childcare places in the heart of local communities
• Work with schools, early-years settings and the NHS to identify families who would benefit most from integrated childcare, early help and health-visiting support
• Support primary schools who are seeing reducing roll numbers to open nursery classes

5.8 Accessible services for residents with disabilities

We will:

• Improve the accessibility of council buildings, services and information
• Provide better information about reasonable adjustments and how to request them
• Co design improvements with disabled residents and their organisations
• Ensure recipients of Direct Payments are given clear, useful information on all the ways they can be used

5.9 Bromley health and wellbeing matters

• Investigate persistent Public Health underspending over the past 4 years and more, and develop a Public Health Strategy that seeks to proactively address the top risks for Bromley, such as provision of strength-based exercise and nutrition advice to people at risk of frailty, and an improved hypertension / cardiovascular disease/diabetes prevention offer to people with multiple conditions
• Invest in lower acuity, proactive mental resilience and wellbeing programmes (for adults and children) to prevent the escalation of depression, anxiety and serious mental illnesses into crisis and loss of independence
• Evaluate the Bromley Mental Health Hub in due course (it is relatively new) and seek to optimise impact accordingly
• Continue to invest in the Bromley Loneliness Strategy and loneliness champion, as a priority, including activities that support younger people with loneliness

5.10 Tackling discrimination and hate crime

Every Bromley resident should feel safe and welcome in our community, we are proud to represent all parts of our community and believe difference and diversity is a strength and will actively challenge hate crime and discriminatory action.

We will:

• Promote mutual respect, understanding and solidarity so Bromley is a borough where hate has no home
• Work proactively with faith groups, schools, community organisations and youth groups to prevent hate before incidents occur, through education, dialogue and positive engagement
• Improve the collection and transparency of hate crime data so residents can see patterns, hotspots and how the Council and police are responding
• Establish clear, simple reporting routes for hate crime and ensure victims are properly signposted to emotional, legal and practical support
• Introduce a Bromley Hate Crime Charter for school, business and community organisations that commit to standing against racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and misogyny
• Support bystander training so residents feel more confident to safely challenge harassment and discrimination in public spaces
• Create regular cross-community forums to build trust, prevent tensions and resolve concerns before they escalate

5.11 Culture, sport, libraries and community life

We will:

• Protect and modernise our library service as a core part of community life, education and digital inclusion
• Support local arts, culture and community events that bring people together, reaching all parts of the borough
• Use empty units and council buildings, where appropriate, for creative, cultural and community uses, bringing life back to high streets
• Work with sports clubs, faith groups and voluntary organisations to widen access to affordable leisure and cultural activities
• Keep rental rates for council owned pitches and playing fields affordable, so grassroots sports clubs and community teams are not priced out of local facilities
• Targets for designated Sports Managers to ensure that sports fields are used at least a minimum level for 39 weekends a year
• Seek funding to ensure there are publicly accessible toilets at large parks so families and all residents can spend more time in public spaces

5.12 A welcoming Bromley for refugees and new arrivals

We will:

• Work with local charities, schools and community groups to support refugees and asylum seekers to access housing advice, education, healthcare and language learning
• Explore options for Bromley to be part of the Borough of Sanctuary movement, learning from councils already involved
• Promote volunteering and community sponsorship schemes, such as Homes for Ukraine, so residents who want to help can do so safely and effectively

The detailed framing of Borough of Sanctuary and related commitments remains for internal discussion.

How Labour’s national plans support this locally:

• Labour’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity, including early years investment and a new childcare and youth guarantee, will reinforce our local work on SEND reform, youth services and work experience in Bromley.
• National reforms to the NHS and social care, with a shift towards prevention and care closer to home, will support our plans to improve community health, in house provision and integrated support for older residents and carers.
• A New Deal for Working People in social care, raising standards and pay nationally, will strengthen our efforts to stabilise the local care workforce and improve continuity and quality of care in Bromley.
• Labour’s focus on high streets and community infrastructure will support our plans to keep libraries, community centres and sporting facilities at the heart of local life.
• National action on public health and mental wellbeing will align with our use of parks, culture and community activity in Bromley to reduce isolation and improve residents’ physical and mental health.