Solving Kids' Cancer UK at the 2024 Party Conferences 

This year we made our debut visit to the Labour and Conservative Party Conferences. In this blog, Public Affairs & Advocacy Lead, Emily, reflects on the experience. 

What are the Party Conferences? 

UK political parties host their annual conferences each autumn. For the parties themselves, there are several purposes, including raising funds, increasing support for the party and, depending on the political climate, aiding their election campaigning. This year, with the conferences coming shortly after the general election, the conferences posed opportunities for the major parties to reflect on the result – both wins and losses – to inform their strategies moving forward.

The attendees at the major party conferences are wide-ranging, as they offer a unique opportunity to network with politicians and get a sense of what each party’s priorities are. This is especially true this year, with there being a change in government for the first time in 15 years and a record number of new MPs. Alongside politicians and charities like us, there is also a wide representation from think tanks, party members, businesses, activists, and journalists.

Why did SKC attend this year? 

In October 2023, we launched our first ever External Affairs Strategy, setting out our vision and goals for how to campaign for and influence national change that will help children with cancer. Our key focus in this work is to accelerate clinical research for children with cancer. We know that clinical trials are the key to finding newer and more effective treatments for children’s cancers, and through our own research funding work, we have become acutely aware of barriers and bottlenecks in the UK’s health infrastructure that are hindering progress. 

Whilst this is a multifaceted problem that requires work from lots of different groups including research funders, patient organisations, research institutions, healthcare centres and industry, we must also see a shift in the government’s approach to tackling cancer in children. This is why, alongside the work we’re doing to engage healthcare professionals in the issues we’ve identified, we’re also making a focused effort to build relationships with politicians and government departments who can help to implement the national changes needed. 

With SKC still in the early stages of our campaigning and influencing work, attending the Labour and Conservative party conferences this year gave us a new platform to raise the profile of our asks to a range of new audiences. In addition, we got to hear first-hand perspectives on national health issues from MPs and health experts that will help us strengthen our approach to engaging key decision-makers who have the power to make change. 

Our highlights and takeaways 

There were plenty of highlights during the jam-packed agendas... 

• Meeting the Health Ministerial team at the Health Charity Showcase 
• Speaking with the former Shadow Health Secretary on her efforts to continue focused work on children’s cancers 
• A meet-up with charity peers thanks to Cancer52 – the member organisation for rare cancer charities 
• Catching up with our friends at Young Lives vs Cancer and Teenage Cancer Trust
• An insightful session on the future of health innovations with Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle
• Meeting Aphra Brandreth MP to talk about the barriers to progressing clinical research and its impact on children with cancer