Work and the ‘glass floor’ should top Labour’s agenda

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jul/27/work-and-the-glass-floor-should-top-labours-agenda

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The future of work is the elephant in the room in the Labour leadership contest (Editorial, 25 July). The pace of change has been scary and can only continue. Zero-hours contracts are just the visible part of a huge shift in work practices, as the traditional job-for-life makes way for a casualised, freelance workforce facing vast international competitive pressure.

In the film and TV industry in which I work – held up as a dynamic creative and economic powerhouse – the growth of the freelance workforce has coincided with skills shortages, as well as ageism, sexism and discrimination against ethnic minorities, as employers view their workforce as a tap to be turned on or off at will.

Other industries will surely follow as the full blast of the global economy is unleashed on previously protected corners of the workplace.

It’s not just White Van Man who lives in daily anxiety about where his next paycheck is coming from, but middle-class, middle-aged executives who know redundancy is always around the next corner. Meanwhile, there is the unseemly scrabble, documented by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, for the very wealthiest to hold on to those increasingly scarce stable professions that guarantee a large income and access to social goods at the very top of society (theguardian.com, 26 July).

Related: Well-off families create 'glass floor' to ensure children's success, says study

Against this backdrop, we need a new vision of the welfare state – one that can empower and enable freelance workers and cushion the inevitable peaks and troughs in employment – and legislation on the rights, conditions, training and pay of freelance workers. This is the Britain Labour’s leadership contenders need to address if the party is to stand any chance of winning again.Dan Clifton Hurst, Berkshire

• The issue of a “glass floor” created by well-off parents to ensure their children succeed regardless of their ability (Opinion, 27 July), by offering better career guidance and encouraging self-confidence and leadership to the detriment of less-advantaged families, must be tackled in school.

Our schools should be inspiring all children, and the best way to develop confidence, self-esteem and leadership is through having adequate arts provision for their pupils from an early enough stage, KS1 onwards. Regrettably, too many head teachers give little significance to the arts, simply because it’s not a winner with Ofsted inspections or school league tables.

The author of the study, Dr Abigail McKnight, says that “schools could do much more to help children from less advantaged families build on high early potential” but to fulfil that potential will mean a change of mindset by many head teachers to embrace arts-based approaches as a key part of their teaching and learning plans.

It seems ludicrous that the arts (along with sport) are rolled out for school open days and other special occasions but locked in the art room the rest of the time. Jeremy NewtonChief executive, Children & the Arts