Sunday is the day that Conference officially starts. It is tradition that a prominent party member from the host city welcomes delegates; so at 11am, the Parliamentary Candidate for Brighton Pavilion, Dr Purna Sen took the stage.

Purna spoke about the city with affection, telling the audience that Brighton was a wonderful & diverse city. It had over 365 pubs, one for every day of the year. But she also talked about the city’s problems – notably that in some areas over 1/3rd of children live in poverty. It was a great opener and one that received huge applause, not least from the many Brighton & Hove Labour members who’d packed in to see her.

If Labour under Ed Miliband has been criticised for lacking policies in the past, they certainly have come thick & fast at this Conference.  And the policy announcements we saw yesterday reiterated Labour’s commitment to tackle the cost of living crisis and a determination to “make work pay”.
I have frequently discussed with friends what would make a difference to them. For those with children, the answer has always been the same – continuity of good quality childcare which is affordable. Currently childcare is so expensive, it’s has become a significant factor for them when making decisions about when to return to work, if at all.

The other issue for new mums has been arranging working hours at the end of maternity leave. Despite working for the same company for over 12 years, the reluctance my sister in-law’s employer showed in accommodating her request for family-friendly hours almost forced her out of her job. She is not alone; over 50,000 women a year lose their jobs while on maternity leave.

So announcements by Yvette Cooper (Shadow Home Secretary) and Stephen Twigg (Shadow Education Secretary) will make a welcome difference. Working parents with children aged 3 and 4 will get 25 hours of free child care. Labour will to guarantee care for primary school children from 8am to 6pm Maternity laws will be tightened to shift the onus on employers to support women during pregnancy and on maternity leave.

After the main Conference session, I attended a Fringe meeting where Shadow Cabinet members spoke. It was an interesting evening, with the most thought-provoking speeches from Caroline Flint, Stella Creasy and Gloria De Pireo.

In the 1990s, politicians wanted to woo Middle England’s voters known as “Mondeo Man”. Today, Caroline Flint talked about “Aldi Mum” as mothers are forced to keep a much more careful eye on their household budget. She said people are now struggling to make money last the month and with little savings are worried about falling into real hardship.

Stella Creasy has long been a hero to many women in the local party due to her tireless campaign against Legal Loan Sharks and work on community engagement. But the focus of speech was on how changing the way public services work could save money. She gave the example of her local hospital which spent £15,000 a week on providing beds for the elderly as they had nowhere to go on being discharged. By providing better social care, money could be saved or reinvested in the hospital. This is a really progressive challenge to the Tory government’s damaging cuts.

Gloria De Piero has only a tiny majority in a constituency where 40% of those registered to vote don’t. So she began knocking on doors to speak to non-voters. She found that many people felt very disconnected from Westminster. That they didn’t feel that voters where “like them” or understand their lives. In the conversations she had, many people felt very passionate about their local community. The task now is for Labour to build on that passion and reconnect with voters and hopefully encourage activists and councillors of the future.

As I arrived at the Metropole Hotel in the Conference Zone, I saw Caroline Lucas and Phelim Mac Cafferty leave. I visited friends who live above the hotel. As they watched Antiques Roadshow, it felt a million miles away from the political hubbub below. I joke about how I’d been mistaken for Caroline Lucas the previous day. After a minute, my friend’s girlfriend looked at me blankly and said “who is Caroline Lucas?”

Caroline Penn @ThePennyDrops