Spencer Pitfield: The CPF's enthusiastic but measured debate about Europe

Dr Spencer Pitfield is the National Voluntary Director of the Conservative Policy Forum (CPF). Follow Spencer on Twitter.

Another election and another bumper crop of CPF papers have made this a busy month. The sad passing of Baroness Thatcher gave a particular poignancy as we read through the record-breaking yield of submissions on Europe.

The hard work of all my volunteer colleagues in the every region was evident in the creation of 90 new CPF groups in past year. This was bolstered in March by the support of many of our MEPs, who spoke at dozens of events across the country and reported back on their work in Europe – sprinkled liberally with tough home truths.

The summary of all Europe submissions – with over 1,800 taking part from in excess of 150 CPF groups nationwide - will be out on 14 May but I can confidently predict a broad endorsement of the Prime Minister’s speech and a fascinating chart showing the policy areas our Members approve of EU-wide joint action - such as trade, climate change and air traffic control - and policy areas like the proposed Financial Transaction Tax, employment regulation and fishing, where they would rather powers flowed back to the UK.

Anger over the constant switching from Brussels to Strasbourg flowed through almost every submission, while Members were more split on the ability of the EU to effectively organise action between member nations that were free to choose and change their level of integration much more freely: the consensus settled around a pre-defined set of institutions or tiers into which each Member could choose to enter. I hope you enjoy the full submission when we send it to David Lidington MP in May.

Spencer Pitfield: Charles Heslop becomes the Conservative Policy Forum's Voluntary Vice Chairman

Dr Spencer Pitfield is the National Voluntary Director of the Conservative Policy Forum (CPF), a national group chaired by Oliver Letwin MP that gives its members the opportunity to discuss the major policy challenges facing Britain today. Follow Spencer on Twitter.

At our recent Spring Conference in London I announced that Fiona Hodgson would step down as CPF Voluntary Vice Chairman.

Fiona has been a dynamic force in not only the re-establishment of the CPF - and this of course required many behind the scenes discussions which led up to our re-launch in Birmingham in January 2011 - and over the past two years in particular has made sure that the CPF has smoothly and professionally rolled-out into the considerable national Party organisation we now represent.

I have no doubt that the CPF will continue to evolve and develop but two years down the road we can now say that we have achieved all of the significant milestones set-out by the Party Board when the green light was given for the CPF to be re-established.

Spencer Pitfield: Immigration and education on the Conservative Policy Forum's agenda

Dr Spencer Pitfield, is the National Voluntary Director of the Conservative Policy Forum (CPF), a national group chaired by Oliver Letwin MP that gives its members the opportunity to discuss the major policy challenges facing Britain today. Follow Spencer on Twitter.

Another month, another challenging topic for the CPF. As if a by-election weren’t enough to be getting on with, we are asking Members their views on Further and Higher Education and all of the big questions are in there: Is the current percentage of young people going to university correct? What is the right balance between state and student payment for university education? How should we seek to promote social mobility in university intakes?

But it isn’t just the controversial stuff that we are interested in hearing about. We know that Members care deeply about the quality of other routes to qualification, so we want to know how the Party could make qualifications in Further Education easier to understand – for young people leaving school, their teachers and their parents, as well as employers. And we’re asking for suggestions about using technology in all types of education over the next few decades. Lots of important topics to mull over whilst you are out delivering that next batch of leaflets...

Or why not take them out on the campaign trail with you? We are now producing short sets of questions for campaigners to use on the doorstep. I was out on Tuesday with our Vice Chairman Fiona Hodgson, putting them to good use in the Eastleigh sunshine.

Spencer Pitfield of the Conservative Policy Forum: Six questions for Conservative members about Europe

Dr Spencer Pitfield, is the National Voluntary Director of the Conservative Policy Forum (CPF), a national group chaired by Oliver Letwin MP that gives its members the opportunity to discuss the major policy challenges facing Britain today. Follow Spencer on Twitter.

Newspapers continue to be full of commentary about Wednesday’s momentous speech. The headlines are broadly supportive and the fulsome support of business leaders, particularly in the Times, is I feel most significant.

While the commentators praise the PM, the Labour Party have taken a curious line: ruling out a referendum while seeking to claim that David Cameron only gave the speech to placate us – the Party – suggesting they don’t recognise any public concern about Europe.

Labour’s bluster and all round confusion is a little odd - you would think that the weeks of speculation might have given them time to think of a better response.

However, once all the rhetoric and innuendo has died down one fact cannot be hidden or swept to one side: yesterday was a Good Day. It was a Good Day for democracy, for frank discussion and honest debate by our fellow citizens.

Frank discussion and honest debate of the facts is our bread and butter, so it was also a Good Day for the CPF.

Spencer Pitfield: The Conservative Policy Forum is reaching out to communities across the country

Dr Spencer Pitfield, is the National Voluntary Director of the Conservative Policy Forum (CPF), a national group chaired by Oliver Letwin MP that gives its members the opportunity to discuss the major policy challenges facing Britain today. Follow Spencer on Twitter.

We have just finished our final discussion brief of the year asking members to contribute their views on education policy. Michael Gove’s policies have arguably been some of the most successful and speedy of the current Parliament but there is – inevitably – more to be done.

Some parts of the country remain opposed to the formation of Academies and Free Schools, while primary schools have so far been converted at a far lower rate than secondaries. There is still a gulf between levels of achievement in the state and independent sectors. And vocational education – considered vital by our Members in last year's Skills paper – is still a mixed bag, in which neither students, nor parents, nor employers know which of the myriad of available courses are to be best respected.

These are challenges that will, no doubt, be raised in our 2015 manifesto and that matter not only to party members but also to the communities in which we live, work and canvass. That makes them perfect for this month’s CPF discussion brief and for reaching out to non-members to ask for their opinions.

Spencer Pitfield: Over 70% of Conservative Policy Forum respondents say UK has a moral obligation to give aid

Dr Spencer Pitfield, is the National Voluntary Director of the Conservative Policy Forum (CPF). Follow Spencer on Twitter.

Our most recent Ministerial Summary to Justine Greening, Secretary of State for International Development, categorically contradicts our naysayers.

I am sometimes asked what is the point of the Conservative Policy Forum. Isn’t it really is just an ‘arm’ of the Party leadership – a sop to Party members by giving them a discussion platform where they can air their views, but nobody, especially the Party Leadership, actually listens? Maybe, these cynics suggest, Member responses come in and are placed directly in a draw at CCHQ, unread by elected colleagues - who anyway live in their ivory-tower Westminster Ministerial bubbles and do and say as they wish. Just what is the point?

Allow me to demonstrate!

Those of us who follow the news will not have missed the constant calls from the press to row back on aid to developing countries. Indeed, many articles have gone much further, saying that aid should be stopped altogether – charity begins at home. Perhaps more importantly in the context of this short piece is the fact that news articles often give the impression that Conservative paid-up members by a considerable majority want an immediate stop to all overseas aid funds.

Spencer Pitfield: It's claimed that the CPF won't discuss weighty topics. Wrong. We're debating immigration.

Dr Spencer Pitfield, is the National Voluntary Director of the Conservative Policy Forum (CPF), a national group chaired by Oliver Letwin MP that gives its members the opportunity to discuss the major policy challenges facing Britain today. Over the coming months he and other members of the voluntary team will be writing a regular post for ConservativeHome. Follow Spencer on Twitter.

On 12 October we released our most recent discussion paper -Immigration. In my role as voluntary Director, I get regular comment and feedback from members up and down the country. A common view relates to the choice of subject for our nine annual papers and the perception that CPF doesn’t want, or indeed is not able, to discuss difficult or ‘weighty’ topics.

I hope the fact that this month our 250 groups will be discussing immigration begins to dispel that myth. I also trust that colleagues will see that our CPF national team does listen closely and respond to the areas of policy debate you would like to address. Indeed, we will turn our focus on Europe in early 2013 – another policy area which I am sure will create heated debate.

Of course, our papers form part of an overall policy analysis strategy, which senior volunteers together with Oliver Letwin MP - our CPF Chairman - and professional colleagues have agreed. It is right that we have a structured process and procedure for collating national views of Party members, putting those views before the relevant Ministerial colleagues, and making sure this Ministerial response is publicised. With over 10,000 individual comments captured to date it remains clear why such an organised approach needs to be adopted.

I would encourage all colleagues to take some time to read our Immigration discussion brief.

Spencer Pitfield: The Conservative Policy Forum is helping to get ordinary members' views into the next manifesto

Dr Spencer Pitfield, is the National Voluntary Director of the Conservative Policy Forum (CPF), a national group chaired by Oliver Letwin MP that gives its members the opportunity to discuss the major policy challenges facing Britain today. Over the coming months he and other members of the voluntary team will be writing a regular post for ConservativeHome. Follow Spencer on Twitter.

I am honoured to have been asked to take over as the new CPF Voluntary Director. CPF has come on in leaps and bounds since its launch in early 2011 by Oliver Letwin and Sayeeda Warsi and now I want to engage even more Members across the country.

So far, 16 discussion papers - from our first on the Alternative Vote to the most recent, "Visit Britain and Britons visiting" - have gone out, sparking an increasing number of very active discussions in communities nationwide. We now have around 250 groups (in every part of the United Kingdom) with 55 per cent of Conservative-held constituencies regularly offering their views. Indeed, (not that we're counting!) over 9,000 viewpoints have been captured.

I'm sure there are some reading this who still aren't exactly sure what CPF is or why they should get involved. Well, we work on many different levels but, most importantly, we are asking the Members about how we develop a manifesto fit for the 2015 General Election. Key areas of debate include rebalancing the economy, our ageing population and building the towns and cities of the future.

Spencer Pitfield: The Free Schools initiative is mercifully challenging the notion that there's a ‘set’ way of educating special needs children

Dr Spencer Pitfield is the Deputy Chairman of the Trustees for Paces Charitable Trust. He contested Sheffield Hallam in 2005 and Penistone & Stocksbridge in 2010, and was recently appointed Sectoral Head for Education, Higher Education and Culture by the Conservative Policy Forum. Here he gives his insights into the issues faced by special schools wanting to become a Free School.

Paces School will shortly be submitting its application to the DfE to be considered as one of the first cohort of Special Free Schools in the country. The school, which was set up over a decade ago by parents of children with cerebral palsy, is currently a non-maintained special school offering a conductive curriculum.

Many years back now, the trustees and management team became inspired by the possibility of becoming a Free School. The history of Paces School to date has been one of ongoing struggle as pupils, parents and teachers fought an ever complex local authority structure. Indeed, almost every pupil of the current twenty-seven strong student body has a story to tell about how difficult it has been to secure funding and support from their local Councils. Sadly, appeals and tribunal adjudications have not been
isolated incidents for pupils and parents wanting to attend the school.

I think it is fair to say Paces School was a Free School well before such a school ever existed. The school was set up by a small number of parents who believed the Hungarian approach of conductive education would help their children best as they learned to deal with the complex demands of growing up - and going to school - with cerebral palsy.