With a General Election happening across the country on 6 May, as well as local council elections in London and some other areas there’s a great opportunity for those of us who care about sexual health, HIV and contraception in our community to make a difference.
Until the election, your local parliamentary and council candidates are totally focused on winning your vote. Before and after the election, issues like jobs, the environment and rubbish collection will continue to have a high profile. That’s why now is the time to make sure they know you also care about sexual health, contraception and HIV!
Here are things you can do to take advantage of this opportunity.
What to ask?
Once elected, MPs and councillors will have a strong influence in your community, so you can ask candidates if they will work with your local NHS and local authority to make sure sexual health is a priority in your area. If you want to tell election candidates about the local situation, enter your postcode to the SHout Loud map to get some regional and local stats.
Candidates are really sure to sit up and take note if you tell them a personal story. So, as long you are happy to share this with them, if you have found it hard to get an STI test or have experience of HIV discrimination, for example, let them know. It’s also great to bring up issues specific to your community, for example the availability of emergency contraception locally, or the state of community sexual health and contraception clinics.
You should also let candidates know if you have benefited from a local service. If there’s likely to be a change of MP in your area, you can alert them to things you think it’s particularly important to continue investing in and make sure you don’t lose important local resources.
Whilst it’s important for you to raise whatever issues are important to you and your community, you might also be interested in the following key areas that some sexual health organisations are campaigning on:
- ensuring 48 hour access and confidential open access to all sexual health services
- preventing poor sexual health by ensuring high quality local and national sexual health promotion programmes
- ensuring all children and young people get high quality sex and relationships education at school by making this a statutory curriculum subject
- ensuring all women have information about and access to the full range of contraception methods, including long acting contraception
- increasing access to HIV testing especially for those who need it most
- ensuring that all women across the UK, including Northern Ireland, have access to NHS funded abortions
If there aren’t any specific issues you want to raise about sexual health, contraception and HIV in your community, it might be worthwhile asking a general question of your candidates. This will make them think more about the issues, and might make them more likely to prioritise them in the future.
Here are some example questions you could ask:
- Will you work alongside our local NHS to help improve sexual health in the area? (Click here to read more about why this is an issue)
- What do you plan to do locally to stop so many people being diagnosed with HIV late? (Click here to read more about why this is an issue)
- How would you work with the NHS to ensure that peope have good access to contraception and abortion services in the area?
- Will you work alongside our local authority to improve the quality of SRE in our schools?
How to ask?
Email your candidates
Most candidates will have a strong internet presence, and emailing them is a quick and easy way to get in touch and get your views heard. Visit yournextmp.com and type in your postcode to view a list of parliamentary candidates in your constituency. Click on their names to find out more about them, and bring up their contact details. Visit your council’s website to find out who’s standing in local elections and how to contact council candidates. You can find your council’s website through direct.gov.uk
Write to your candidates
Emailing your candidates is great, but a personal, hand-written letter does show that you care enough to have taken that bit more effort. Again, you should be able to get the address of the candidate you wish to contact from yournextmp.com or from your council for local elections.
Tell them in person
Both parliamentary and council candidates will be knocking on front doors asking people what matters to them and trying to woo voters. Not many people will be talking about sexual health, contraception or HIV, so it’s great to raise the issue and challenge them on what they plan to do to improve the sexual health of your community. If you are worried about a candidate’s party’s policy, ask them if they agree with it. The more personal, the better.
Write to your local paper
Politicians are very sensitive to local media coverage at the best of times. Right now, getting a letter in the local paper will have a big impact on raising your issue. Challenge your MP or other candidates to tell people what they are going to do about your issue.
Go to a hustings
There will be a number of question and answer sessions, known as hustings, being held in your area. There could even be a health-specific hustings. Promises of support that candidates make will be a matter of public record so make sure you take notes to hold them to after the election. Check your local paper for details of your local hustings.
Whilst you might not feel comfortable talking about some issues at a hustings, you can always talk about it on the doorstep or write it in a letter.
Good luck!
If you’d like any more advice or support in contacting your candidates, please don’t hesistate to get in touch by emailing info@shoutloud.org.uk
If you manage to raise local sexual health, contraception and HIV issues with any of your candidates, and you get a response from them, we’d love to hear from you. If you have the time, let us know how your candidate responded by emailing us at info@shoutloud.org.uk
