National Insurance
and Social Welfare Arrangements

The Labour Party wants to improve welfare arrangements in order to provide security and an equitable distribution of resources for current and future generations.
In social welfare policy help to self-help and rehabilitation should provide the basis for jobs and self-support schemes for as many people as possible. Handicapped persons must have equal opportunities for participation in working life. Everyone should be guaranteed an income and welfare if their health fails, when they are unemployed, and in their old age.

Adequate Pension Plan
The Labour Party wants to stand by the principle of social distribution of resources and mutual insurance through the national insurance. This should continue to be the key element in our comprehensive system for providing benefits and national insurance. It provides basic security for all inhabitants regardless of their previous earned income and awards a basic level of social security in proportion to the habitual earned income for gainfully employed persons. The Labour Party wants to make the national insurance predictable for the individual by maintaining the social contract between generations on which our public pension system is based. The national insurance must have the goal of serving to redistribute resources among groups with different income levels, among different generations, and between men and women, but it should also amount to an adequate general pension plan for everyone. In order to ensure a better trend in living conditions for retired persons with low incomes, improvements will also be needed in housing assistance schemes and protection against unreasonable charges for nursing and health care measures.

National Insurance and Work
More people should be given an opportunity to combine work with national insurance. Health and social welfare policy should also be based on this principle of employing more welfare recipients. Social security and social welfare arrangements should provide security when at certain times in one's life it is needed, but various social security schemes for people of working age must be organised in such a way that they return people to gainful employment whenever and as quickly as possible. They must serve as a bridge from a social security dependence back into gainful employment again. This is the best way in which we can give both individuals and the society at large the possibility of growing and utilising their resources. People receiving disability benefits should be given a greater opportunity to find work without losing the right to a pension. We want to make a greater effort to devise flexible arrangements that provide better opportunities for specially adapted jobs and working hours. An increasing percentage of the people on long-term sick leave consists of persons with psychological problems and muscular or skeletal complaints. A national strategy is needed to call attention to rehabilitation measures for these groups. Early follow-up with individual rehabilitation plans should be one of the most important policy instruments for dealing with all persons on long-term sick leave. Improving preventative measures against absenteeism is in the interest of all parties. The authorities should invite the trade union movement and the employers to continued consultation regarding measures against absenteeism and experiences with the sick pay scheme. How to divide the responsibility for financing between the employers and the national insurance authorities in the different periods of absenteeism is one of the areas of concern that should be re-discussed. Another is the right to sickness benefits when one's child is ill, which can currently be claimed for up to 10 days a year and for 20 days if the child has a serious or chronic illness. We want to amend the regulations so that children that have to stay in a hospital for long periods of time will have an opportunity to have their parents with them during this period. In such cases it must be possible to provide sickness benefits beyond the established period.

Help to Self-help
Long periods with social welfare benefits or payments from the national insurance can lead to economic inactivity and disqualification from the job hunt. As unemployment declines, greater resources should be allocated to help groups that have special problems in the labour market. It should be part of the guarantee to our youth that all young people between the ages of 16 and 25 who apply for social assistance, should be rapidly followed up with an offer of a job, education or labour market schemes so that no one is left with nothing to do for more than six months. Single breadwinners without work or education must also be given high priority for offers of active schemes. When there are suitable programmes, terms and conditions pertaining to activities related to social assistance can be stipulated according to individual appraisals. People who find themselves in Çgrey areasÈ where the responsibility is not clearly delegated tend to be given less priority. Thus, there is a special need for health centres and social welfare offices, home care services, social service units for criminals, the National Insurance Administration, psychiatric services and the employment offices to better co-ordinate their measures intended for persons with complex problems and assistance needs.

Participation and Equal Status for The Handicapped
Disabled persons should have the same opportunities, rights and obligations in the society as everyone else. In order to establish this equality, special tools and arrangements for the handicapped are needed in many areas. The Labour Party wants to remove barriers to participation, whether they concern transportation, education, recreational activities, culture, the job market, information, access to buildings and plants or some other factor. With information technology we can create new and better tools in a number of fields. This will radically increase the opportunities for rehabilitation and integration in the coming years. The Labour Party also maintains that disabled persons have a right to complete a full education. We want to better arrange matters so that disabled persons receive an appropriate offer of a college level education, and the efforts to accomplish this task should begin as soon as possible. In order to improve the participation of the handicapped in gainful employment, we must increase the competence of the Labour Market Administration, make use of necessary facilities including information technology, and help develop a variety of sheltered job offers. Many disabled persons who are currently staying in institutions must be given an opportunity to live a life in their own specially adapted dwelling, which meets life-cycle housing standards. It is especially necessary to establish independent housing alternatives for young disabled persons who would otherwise be relegated to institutions for the elderly. All young disabled persons should be removed from homes for the elderly. In all planning of new housing estates, emphasis should be given to including life cycle housing in the total stock of housing. The national insurance system must be organised in such a way that the handicapped have access to facilities that provide help to self-help.

Twenty-four Hour Care and Nursing
A good outreach nursing programme gives many people who need help security and the possibility of living at home instead of in an institution. Further funding of home nursing and care requires that all municipalities establish twenty-four hour home care services. Extremely handicapped persons who want more control over their assistance programmes should be given an opportunity to hire a personal assistant. Contracts for the paid provision of care services can also provide good, flexible solutions in a number of cases. We are in favour of arrangements where municipalities and persons providing care establish these contracts for the provision of care, in which an agreement is reached on wages and respite arrangements. These agreements must be based on a scheme where individual are to be guaranteed twenty-four-hour service under municipal auspices from the day that the tasks become too extensive or heavy for them to manage by themselves. Respite services, personal emergency response systems, escort assistance services, meals on wheels and other measures to provide a broad range of services are needed. Some of those who receive twenty-four-hour home nursing and care have a need for sheltered accommodation, i.e. a home that has been arranged to give the users a better opportunity to organise their own life than they will find in an institution. Quality standards for care services should emphasise co-determination and privacy, correct nutrition, routines for grooming and washing, and other concerns of this kind. The users' own organisations must be included to an increasing extent in keeping with the shaping of nursing and care programmes at the municipal, county and national levels. A better co-ordination of voluntary efforts and public measures is an objective and a key feature of our nursing and care policy.

Day Centres and Work Co-operatives
Persons with mental handicaps should be allowed to live and dwell independently as much as possible and could have an active existence in the company of others, including others with mental handicaps. As institutionalised care is phased out in favour of separate dwellings in local communities, the most important task will be to improve their integration into the community and arrange for a good everyday life. Co-operation is needed among the municipalities in order to establish versatile welfare services. In order to keep their social contact and sense of security from deteriorating when they move out of the institution, all of the handicapped persons must be given meaningful, organised measures to take part in during the daytime. This requires further development of day centres and work co-operatives with suitable tasks, where different groups who need these services can be integrated. Leisure time measures must also be developed so that the handicapped will avoid isolation, while their happiness and quality of life are promoted. More mentors and leisure time assistants are needed in the municipalities if all of the mentally handicapped people are to have an opportunity to take part in recreational activities. For those who live at home, respite services should be further developed so that those affected are given better opportunities to take vacations and participate in other forms of recreation.

Self-payment and Dental Health Services
For some health and care services, user payment and user fees have been introduced. These can contribute significantly to the financing of these services and induce the individual to make more prudent use of public services, but they must be designed in such a way that there is no danger that anyone will be excluded from applying for necessary assistance and support. From this perspective it is necessary to continuously evaluate the consequences of various self-payment schemes in different areas. We are sceptical to a trend in the direction of more self-payment in the health sector. The need for greater resources should primarily be met through the tax assessment notice. Any new proposals favouring self-payment for services must be considered in a broad context, and a comprehensive evaluation must be conducted in each individual cased. The dental health services in particular are based to a much greater extent than other health services on self-payment. This can have unfortunate distribution effects and cause some people to have difficulty getting the help they need. Important target groups should be given a thorough follow-up by calling them in to the public dental health service for an examination of the condition of their dental health. Those who need treatment will be referred to dentists and given an orientation on the conditions for receiving support for dental expenses. We want to initiate a review of who can receive economic support for treatment and of how great the individual's necessary expenses should be before an income-dependent refund arrangement takes effect. The objective should be to come up with solutions that better ensure that people do not neglect their dental health for financial reasons.

Funeral Benefits
The Labour Party wants to ensure that all surviving relatives will have an opportunity to arrange a dignified funeral for the deceased. We think that this opportunity is best facilitated through a funeral arrangement anchored in the national insurance. The current statutory arrangement whereby survivors are entitled a basic funeral grant should be continued for everyone. In addition, it should be possible to receive means-tested support. The combination of a basic grant that is awarded to everyone and supplementary support when needed should be evaluated after it has been in effect for a while.

Good Housing for Everyone

The Labour Party wants to develop safe residential communities with good, suitable dwellings for all sectors of the population.
In order to prevent differences in living conditions, versatile housing alter-natives must be provided in all regions, and greater support must be provided for housing renovation and environmental renewal. It is particularly necessary to provide better housing to youth in the process of getting established and to the elderly and handicapped who need housing that is more adapted to their special needs. The Norwegian National Housing Bank should continue to play a key role in the implementation of housing policy.

Versatile Housing Alternatives
In order to become good, stable local communities, residential areas need a variety of housing alternatives adapted to families with children, the elderly, youth, single persons, the handicapped and other groups. This can be ensured by public regulatory, planning and construction authorities and should be an objective in all municipal plans. In areas with little variety in the available housing, such as neighbourhoods near the centre of the biggest cities, a merging of apartments may be a favourable measure. The total attractiveness of residential areas is important in order to counteract social disparities related to place of residence. In this case measures that lie beyond the scope of pure housing policy instruments are also of great importance, e.g. kindergartens, neighbourhood police posts, schools, senior citizens centres, youth measures, jobs, shops, sports facilities, outdoor recreation areas, and environment-friendly traffic conditions. These measures must be used in planning to counteract the deterioration and decline of certain residential communities. Giving the municipalities better opportunities to scatter the location of municipal apartments by purchasing a limited number of units in blocks of privately owned flats and housing co-operatives is also a suitable tool for promoting the social equalisation of different residential areas.


The Role of The Norwegian National Housing Bank
The Norwegian National Housing Bank should continue to have a social profile and be the government's most important implementary body in residential policy. It should manage various subsidy arrangements and be a strong general housing bank. In order to ensure a sufficient supply of modestly priced dwellings and a regular, stable construction of housing, the Norwegian National Housing Bank must also finance a considerable share of new construction in the future. With its standard requirements the Norwegian National Housing Bank is meant to help promote modest pricing, quality, and good ecological and economic utilisation of resources in the housing sector. It must guarantee everyone the possibility of having their own dwelling in a good residential community and offer low interest rates and favourable terms on loans to those who want to own a dwelling that meets general housing standards. Suitable subsidy and loan arrangements should be actively used in collaboration with the municipalities to assist vulnerable groups in the housing market. In particular, more sheltered accommodation for the elderly and life-cycle housing for the handicapped and others are needed. The new housing subsidy for youth in the process of getting established should be further developed with the intention of making it an important factor in the social housing policy. It must be implicit in the intentions for the loan scheme for first-time buyers that first-time buyers under 35 years of age will be guaranteed access to these loans.


Rental Housing
The stock of Norwegian housing is dominated by owner-occupied dwellings. A high percentage of owners has many advantages, but it also means that there are fewer options and less flexibility in the available housing. Building more rental dwellings will be an important measure for meeting the needs of groups that have problems in the housing market. This may particularly apply to youth who are getting established for the first time, refugees, people seeking an education and others who need short-term housing solutions. Although the need and demand are present, few rented dwellings are being built in Norway. It is therefore necessary to review the constraints that should be altered in order to encourage municipalities, housing co-operatives and others to create more available rental housing at a reasonable price and acceptable standard on a non-commercial basis. There may be a need for improvements in loan and subsidy arrangements and the establishment of a support fund to safeguard against unpaid rental income. This fund should be financed through contributions from the authorities, lessees, housing co-operatives, and other interested parties so that there will be a mutual interest in creating an effective rental market and avoiding the construction of dwellings that remain vacant.

Housing Renovation and Environmental Renewal
As a result of the demographic trends and the previous construction of housing, the construction of new housing has stabilised at a lower level than in previous times. It is therefore more important than ever to channel resources to the maintenance and renewal of existing residential areas. The investments that have already been made must be managed in a justifiable way from both an environmental and an economic perspective. In the construction and renovation of housing, greater consideration must be given to energy economising (EN¯K). Housing co-operatives and others conduct a relatively extensive maintenance work, but a number of major necessary tasks will probably only be implemented with the aid of support measures. An important policy instrument is the government subsidy for housing quality that should be used to create better common areas and traffic safety and to take care of and improve the aesthetic and environmental quality of Norway's total stock of housing. The local planning and construction authorities also need clearer statutory authority to be able to order homeowners who let buildings deteriorate and thereby mar their surroundings to make improvements on them. Efforts in urban renewal areas should be increased so that the more serious housing renovation and environmental renewal can be completed. In order to ensure residents and developers in these areas against undeserved and unmanageable economic problems, there is a need for risk-reducing and debt settlement measures.

Good Services
New needs require new solutions in housing co-operatives and other owner-occupied housing measures as well. In many places active efforts are being made to provide better services for residents. This is the case for familiar tasks such as caretaker functions and cable network offers, but also for new forms of housing services and co-operation with the municipalities on the development of welfare programmes. There are unmet needs for everyday assistance in the home, which the housing movement can meet by establishing programmes that offer these additional services. Public measures such as libraries have a better chance of reaching the residents if they can create delivery services in the local communities in co-operation with the housing co-operative and associations. By actively making use of their ownership rights to the cable networks, the housing co-operatives can make new interactive IT services available to a large part of the population. Likewise, they can act together as demanding big customers in fields such as energy and telecommunications, help promote a good use of resources and a better provision of services at lower prices.

Homes for The Elderly
Many people want to feel assured that they can move into a suitable dwelling when they become older, i.e. a smaller and more easily tidied apartment with an elevator and other necessary accommodations. They should be able to plan when they want to move in themselves and not be dependent on the waiting lists for the municipal sheltered accommodation, which is also mainly intended for people who need nursing care. These kinds of homes for the elderly should be available in local communities so that the elderly don't have to move away from familiar surroundings and their social network. If this kind of backing of homes for the elderly is not to get underway, the housing co-operatives and other owner-occupied housing measures will have to be made capable of becoming the main actors. It ought to be possible to give the government subsidies for sheltered accommodation to the housing co-operatives that want to invest in homes for the elderly. The Norwegian National Housing Bank's subsidy and loan arrangements should also be adapted to this purpose. Even though many elderly persons will acquire enough housing capital through the sale of their previous dwelling, some will need extra funds to pay for a better equipped apartment and for various other services. Special membership arrangements and favourable savings schemes should therefore be established for homes for the elderly so that the planning measures can be adapted to the elderlys' needs and demand..

Secure Youth

The Labour Party wants to help give everyone a secure youth by equalising social differences among children and by combining cash transfers of child benefits with public service programmes.
We want to give priority to better and cheaper care services for families
with children. An equitable programme of services is essential if social differences are to be equalised. At the same time this ensures freedom of choice and gives the parents of small children the opportunity to combine the provision of care with participation in the labour force. The objective of full kindergarten coverage by the year 2000 must be achieved. When it is achieved, we want to gradually develop a programme providing a certain amount of time free of charge in kindergartens for children ages three to five. Child benefits should continue to be a general rather than a means-tested arrangement.

Full Kindergarten Coverage by The Year 2000
The construction of kindergartens has been extensive in recent years. However, there are still many people who want a day-care place but are not offered one. This is especially true for children under three years of age. This puts many families with small children in a difficult situation. The Labour Party stands by its approved objectives regarding full kindergarten coverage for all who want it by the year 2000. In order to achieve this, we want to introduce a reorganisation grant that can be used to convert places vacated by six-year-olds into places for small children. In addition, we want to evaluate dividing children into groups in the kindergartens to increase the operating grant for places for small children and to evaluate other measures to promote the goal of full kindergarten coverage. Funding models should be devised, which make it economically simpler to have more flexible opening hours. The construction of kindergartens should also be ensured through various co-operative approaches and through collaboration between independent organisations and the municipalities. A better kindergarten service requires more staff. In order to meet this need, the number of training places for pre-school teachers must be increased.

Kindergarten Services at A Reasonable Price
The goal of full kindergarten coverage should be followed by a goal of kindergarten places at reasonable prices. There should still be a three-way sharing of the expenses among the state, the municipality and the parents, but the charge to the parents must not be unreasonable. We want kindergarten fees to be graduated according to income, and there should be discounts for siblings. When the goal of full kindergarten coverage has been achieved in the year 2000, we want to gradually develop a programme offering a certain amount of time free of charge for 3-5-year-olds in kindergartens, i.e. an offer of a few hours for which the parents don't have to pay. In this way we want to ensure that all children are given an opportunity to reap the benefits of the social and pedagogical programmes provided by the kindergartens, which are an important preparation for the schooling that comes later. A programme that includes all children will also be able to reach those who have problems and thus have a preventative effect. Kindergarten time free of charge will mean a great deal for the economies of parents of small children and help equalise differences among families with children.

Public Control of Kindergarten Services
The municipalities should have overall responsibility for and the possibility of controlling the total kindergarten service. At the same time the rapid increase in the number of kindergarten places in recent years has been possible because support has been given to a mix of public and private units. A significant number of kindergartens will continue to be privately owned in the future as well. However, there is a need for reviewing the forms of co-operation between municipal and private owners on the basis of the goal of providing a service that is co-ordinated as much as possible, among other things as regards the priorities that are given to disabled persons and arrangements for immigrant children. Moreover, the rates charged to parents must also be reviewed.

The System of Organised After-school Activities
The Compulsory School Reform increases the need for places in the system of organised after-school activities. We want to ensure the right to a organised after-school activities for all pupils in grades 1 to 4. This should be financed by operating subsidies from the government, fees from parents and subsidies from the municipalities. The ought to be maximum limits on the amount that parents must pay. The content of the system of organised after-school activities should be developed locally in each municipality in a collaboration among school, music and art school, and voluntary organisations. Cultural activities that have traditionally taken place in the evening, e.g. related to sports and music, should be integrated as much as possible into the system of organised after-school activities for the smallest children. We want to ensure that children with special needs will also have an opportunity to make use of the system of organised after-school activities.

When Care Is Not Provided
Some children live in families in which they receive a serious lack of proper care and are subjected to physical attacks. If the families fail the children, the society must take responsibility for seeing that the children are given the security they are entitled to. Child welfare has been vastly improved in recent years. We want to continue to invest heavily in child welfare. Child welfare should attain a high level of competence and quality. We want national and local co-operation among child welfare services, kindergartens, child and youth psychiatric services, and education and health services. We want to have child welfare services that are open and that everyone is aware of. As a step in the review of child welfare, care in foster homes should also be considered with the aim of improving the care in this area. Child welfare and other services that are in close daily contact with children must make a special effort to follow up and support children who grow up in families with substance abuse problems. The effort to combat sexual abuse of children is a national responsibility. The most important task is to acquire information so that abuse can be prevented and so that children that are abused receive correct support and help. Refuges and crisis centres for victims of incest must be granted sufficient funding. An appropriate sentencing framework must be devised so that those who are guilty of molestation are punished severely, and they must undergo treatment so as to prevent further abuse from occurring..

Equal Right to Education

The Labour Party wants to ensure everyone an equal right to education.
Education is one of the foremost policy instruments for equalising social disparities, and it provides the basis for growth and development in working life and business and industry. We want to ensure the required funding and curriculum for the implementation of ten years of compulsory schooling, continue to build on the experiences gained from Reform 94, help to further increase the number of apprenticeship places, and provide access to higher education to as many people as possible. Student housing, kindergartens and other student welfare measures should help improve the living conditions of students. In addition, student financing must be improved especially for pupils in upper secondary schools. Pupils with special needs should be ensured equal opportunities for an adequate education. Private school programmes must not undermine the society's capability of providing a uniform school programme with adequate funding and curriculum to everyone. Decentralised upper secondary school programmes must be continued. In addition, arrangements must be made to further develop these forms of education, and similar arrangements must be made at the college level.

Compulsory Schooling
There should be one school for everyone, and school start at age six (instead of seven) and a ten-year basic education (instead of nine) will ensure children and youth the best possible start in life. The new compulsory school should counteract inequalities and educational differences. The school should be based on a common curriculum and provide opportunities for growth to the individual. It should promote both national standards and local variation in the curriculum, international awareness and personal identity. The education should be designed to meet the needs of the individual and likewise those of different age groups. Everyone should be given challenges that develop a sense of perspective and learning ability. The new ten-year compulsory school is divided into an initial stage, an intermediate stage and a lower secondary stage, each of which has its own distinctive curriculum and way of working. The Compulsory School Reform must be followed up and evaluated underway so that it ensures a high level of quality in the curriculum, a good outdoor and indoor physical environment, multi-use schools, and safe access for children to and from school. We want to ensure the necessary funding and curriculum for the implementation of the reform so that all municipalities can provide an equivalent programme. One step toward this objective is to update the education of teachers and give future teachers a solid professional and pedagogical platform on which to stand. The education of teachers must be vocationally-oriented and consistently combine pedagogical theory with practical experience.

Upper Secondary Education
Reform 94 guarantees everyone an upper secondary education that leads to a job or provides the necessary competence for further studies. All 16-19 year-olds have a right to a three-year upper secondary education in a school or company, and they have a right to enter one of the three foundation courses they apply for. The number of apprenticeship places has increased as a result of this reform. This is a trend that will have to continue. The government should help ensure that this happens, but if it is to function well, individual companies in both the public and private sectors will have to take responsibility for establishing the apprenticeship places. This will later benefit these businesses by giving them access to youth with an education adapted to the demands of working life. Companies that are too small to have apprentices by themselves must get together to form training circles. The public sector must have a special obligation to follow up with programmes in new vocations that are currently covered by the apprenticeship scheme. Among other things this applies to people working with children and youth, providers of care, health service therapists activating people in institutions and cleaning workers. An extra effort to establish more apprenticeship places in municipalities, counties and the state will provide necessary training to more people and ensure qualified manpower for the public sector. The guidance counselling service in the school should be upgraded, and the contacts between the school and employers should be further improved. We want to follow up Reform 94 with continuous evaluations of how the programme is functioning in light of the needs of the individual pupil and the employers' requirements for knowledge. The county colleges will continue to play an important role in the educational system. With its free approach to schoolwork this type of school is an important supplement for many pupils. The arrangement with an exchange of guest pupils between different counties must be devised and carried out so as to serve the pupils' best interests. The pupils should have an influence on everyday matters in the school and be included in decisions so that they can take greater responsibility for their own learning. The pupils must also be ensured the possibility of participating in student democracy and in political work.

Assessment of Pupils
The assessment should motivate the pupils to work and to use their abilities and aptitudes. It should give necessary feedback to pupils and parents, provide guidance and inspiration and document the individual pupil's skills. The assessment should help increase the pupils' motivation and desire to learn. That is why it is especially important. We want to encourage the pupils to reflect upon their own work, their own efforts and their progress. In the initial and intermediate stages, the assessment should be informal (i.e. without marks). At the lower secondary stage the pupils should be given both an informal and a formal assessment (by means of marks). The statutory right to a place in an upper secondary school has made the formal assessment considerably less important. We would therefore like to develop forms of assessment that give the pupils a more thorough and constructive feedback as regards their work. We want to improve the informal assessment and to try out alternative forms of testing, such as Çopen book testsÈ and interdisciplinary tests. In the upper secondary school we want to retain a combination of formal and informal assessments. The assessment must be reviewed with the aim of giving the pupils more thorough feedback with
greater emphasis on other forms of evaluation besides marks.

Financial Aid for Pupils in Upper Secondary Schools
The individual pupil's expenses associated with upper secondary schooling are great. The cost of books is especially burdensome. The right to an upper secondary education must also entail that the economic possibilities of completing the schooling are ensured. Those who had to take out a loan while they were going to an upper secondary school are currently among those who have the biggest problems servicing the debt, nor have pupils in upper secondary education been those who usually benefited from the rapid increase in the size of scholarships in recent years. We would therefore like to increase the support to pupils in upper secondary schools. This increase should mainly be given in the form of a scholarship. The goal is to abolish borrowing rights and give all support to pupils guaranteed a place in an upper secondary school (i.e. 16-19 year-olds) in the form of scholarships. We want to increase the means-tested basic scholarship for 16-19 year old pupils who are living at home, and pupils living away from home should continue to have a right to a separate scholarship. In order to reduce the individual pupil's expenses for books, we want to establish a lending arrangement for textbooks connected to each individual upper secondary school.

Higher Education
The universities and colleges are interconnected in Network Norway (for institutions of higher learning), which is based on principles of concentration, co-operation and a professional division of labour. This affords a broader programme and higher quality and makes it easier for students to change their place of study. We want to continue to increase the capacity in priority target subjects at the universities and colleges. Student places and resources should be divided in such a way that the individual is ensured the opportunity to get a higher education regardless of his or her place of residence, social class, sex and capability of functionality. The working conditions for students should be better organised so that as many as possible can carry out their studies in a normal progression. Among other things, this entails that the advisory capacity for graduate students must be increased. We are currently not clever enough at fully utilising our resources at colleges and universities. Therefore, we want to seek arrangements that make greater use of buildings and scientific employees for a larger part of the year. In this way we could reduce the total study time and allow for more student places.

Financial Aid and Repayment Schemes for Students in Higher Education
Through scholarship schemes and low interest loans, financial aid to students should help ensure everyone an equal economic opportunity to get a higher education. Hence, the State Educational Loan Fund is not an ordinary bank, but a political tool for achieving these goals, both during and after the period of study. Most of the subsidies for financing a student's education should be awarded during the period of study. We want to set the general scholarship at 30 percent of the total financial aid and expand the scheme for forgiving part of the educational loan when the education is completed. The possibility of having a loan forgiven by converting it to a scholarship in cases of birth and illness should be retained. There should still be no accumulation of interest during the period of study. Trial arrangements that make it possible to receive an educational loan in monthly instalments throughout the year are measures that should be evaluated in order to improve the utilisation of resources in higher education. In order to support those who have problems in the repayment phase, we want to make improvements in the INTB scheme (Income dependent reduction of instalment payments). Those who have the lowest incomes should also be given a further reduction in the percentage that they must pay back. The period of time that can be covered by the INTB scheme should be extended to ten years. At the same time we want to evaluate a certain amount of debt rescheduling after thirty years of repayment.

Student Welfare
In principle the Labour Party thinks that students, like other groups in the society, should be included in the society's welfare arrangements in a usual way. At present student welfare is mainly organised through student welfare organisations. We particularly want to strengthen the student welfare organisations' capability of providing good kindergarten coverage and reasonably priced rental housing for young people while they are getting an education. Special consideration must be given here to variations in the level of costs in different parts of the country. Host municipalities for universities and colleges have both opportunities and challenges associated with housing many students, among other things as regards the greater demand for welfare services. At the same time, these municipalities can more easily make use of research for economic development and the creation of wealth. The Labour Party wants to take the initiative to see that the relations between places of learning and their host municipalities are studied more closely..

Senior Citizens

The Labour Party wants to ensure that senior citizens feel secure and are able to take part in the society.
Senior citizens should have economic security and confidence that the necessary nursing and care will be there when they need it. Good care for the elderly is necessary in order to ensure security for everyone. Equally important for the elderly are participation in working life and social activities and representation in political bodies that is proportionally equivalent to that of other age groups. The differences among senior citizens are just as great as in the population as a whole. Therefore, the distribution policy must also cover senior citizens.

Making Use of Senior Citizens' Experience
Policy for the elderly involves much more than just care of the elderly. Retired persons are one of the society's biggest and most poorly utilised human resources. They possess knowledge, opinions and experience that are needed in politics and other general social activities. Arrangements should be made to allow retired persons to serve as assistants in schools and kindergartens on a voluntary basis. This can be organised through senior citizens centres and various other organisations. Volunteer centres are another way of linking people's needs for care, knowledge and assistance with other people's need to provide these services. The Labour Party will continue to actively support these kinds of measures.

Senior Citizens Centres
Senior citizens centres are activity and service programmes intended for all senior citizens who live at home. By funding senior citizens centres, the need for nursing and care can be postponed by offering people programmes of activities, contact with others and the possibility of giving or receiving help. Meetings and conversations at senior citizens centres increase the chance of discovering and following up problems such as improper nutrition, loneliness and violence. We want to arrange matters so that all municipalities are able to offer activities and participation at senior citizens centres. The users should have some influence on the management of these centres.

Democracy and Co-determination
It is required by law that all municipalities and counties must have a council for the elderly. This arrangement should be continued so as to ensure the elderly influence on matters that especially concern them. It is also important to encourage and arrange matters for participation in the society's regular organisations and in the political parties. At present about a fourth of the population have almost no representatives from their age group on municipal councils, county councils and in the Storting (the Norwegian Parliament). The political parties, including the Labour Party, are responsible for ensuring a broad representation by age group in elected bodies.

Ensuring The Quality Provision of Care
We should all feel secure that we shall receive adequate quality care services when we need them. The needs are many, and the services must be numerous as well. A range of care services that cover everything from a few hours of assistance at home, through sheltered accommodation, to round-the-clock nursing in nursing homes, should ensure a service adapted to each individual. In the coming years we want to focus especially on increasing the amount of sheltered accommodation. This is a service that ensures a combination of necessary care and the possibility of managing one's own affairs by having one's own dwelling. The quality of the services in the care of the elderly should be ensured through separate regulations. In the course of a five year period we want to strive for the conversion of rooms in institutions that sleep more than one person into rooms with only one bed so that those who so desire can have a private room. This should be followed up with a binding plan for increasing the number of places in nursing homes so that those who have a need for extensive care and nursing will be offered this service. The municipalities should be ensured transfers that make it possible to establish quality care of the elderly. The Labour Party would therefore like to further increase the allocations for care for the elderly in the coming years. For those who want to and can take care of themselves in their own dwelling, the public authorities must mainly use resources to provide necessary services and nursing care. The construction of homes for the elderly and improvements in dwellings by adapting them to the needs of the elderly must be carried out to a greater extent in collaboration among individuals, various co-operative entities and the municipalities.

Preventive Health Care
The elderly often have more health problems than other age groups, but older people can also avoid or reduce various complaints if symptoms are discovered early so that diseases can be prevented. The elderly should therefore be given regular health check-ups. Preventive health care can spare the individual later problems while sparing the health and social services the cost of expensive treatment after the problem arises. In addition, efforts should be made to prevent accidents by providing auxiliary aids and appliances and by making minor improvements in the homes of certain individuals.

The National Insurance Should Continue to Safeguard
the Finances of Retired Persons
The National Insurance should be the foundation of an equitable pension system. Everyone should be ensured a basic security through a minimum pension and a supplementary pension that is proportional to previous income. Pension entitlements that have been earned must not be tampered with. The majority of today's retired persons are better off economically than ever before, but there are big differences among retired persons. In the future many retired persons will receive the same level of income as many wage earners. We would therefore like to gradually adjust the tax level for the highest pensions so that it approaches the tax level for corresponding wage incomes. There should continue to be no tax paid on the minimum pension. Retired persons on minimum pensions who have economic difficulties should be given support through housing benefit schemes, among other things.

An Equitable Health Service

The Labour Party wants to increase the effort to give good, prompt, qualified help to everyone who becomes physically or mentally ill.
This can be done by using more resources to develop a common public
health service, which gives top priority to the patients' needs and does not
discriminate in the treatment given to different people. In particular the capacity at the hospitals can be better utilised to help more patients and reduce waiting periods.

Efforts to Promote Good Health
The majority of the factors that affect our physical and mental health - such as lifestyle, family situation, social network, working environment, living conditions, intoxicating substances, hazing, violence, traffic accidents, noise-related stress, and the pollution of food, water and air - are dealt with in other sectors of the society than the health services. Therefore, we must give greater emphasis to the effects on our health when political decisions are made in these various fields. The responsibility of the municipalities and the opportunities to do preventive work should be enhanced. If the resources for prevention and treatment are both consolidated in one place, the motivation and opportunities to divert more funds to preventive measures will increase. Each municipality and county must draw up its own comprehensive plan for the prevention of physical and mental illness, with particular emphasis on efforts in the school, traffic, and transport sectors and the prevention of accidents in the home. Some conditions that especially concern women are not well enough covered by the health sector. Greater attention and effort must be focused on preventive work in particular. This must include research on the causes and possible treatment methods associated with typical feminine complaints, e.g. certain forms of cancer and fibrositis. We also want to learn more about the areas of foetal death and infant mortality. Woman should be ensured the possibility of regular check-ups by mammography. In this way more cases of breast cancer will be discovered and may be successfully treated.

Focus on The Patient
The patients must find the health service accommodating and service-minded so as to avoid exacerbating insecurity and other complaints in an already difficult life situation. It should be easy to contact the relevant somatic and psychiatric services when seeking help. The time it takes to answer requests must be short. The patients should have good, updated information about waiting times before examinations, admissions, or operations so that they are not kept waiting in uncertainty. The time for further treatment must be agreed upon as soon as possible and be binding for both parties so that patients do not find themselves being sent home empty-handed. During their stay, the patients should be given access to various services that are also available in the society at large, such as newspapers and reading matter, television channels, library services, music or products sold in kiosks. These services can be provided in co-operation with private service companies and paid for by the users so that the health service's own resources are not charged.

Primary Health Services
The population's need for professional medical help and treatment should be met as much as possible by the primary health services in the local community. These services must be improved in quality and extent so that they can prevent the overuse of specialist health services. The number of public sector general practitioners should be expanded to better meet the population's need for follow-up, quick availability and a regular doctor. Moreover, in some workplaces there is a need for a better and more accessible company health service. The maternal and child health centres must be given responsibility for birth control efforts, so that their activities can meet the needs of youth for guidance on contraception. They should also co-operate with homes, schools, sports clubs and other affected parties on measures to prevent and treat eating disorders. The municipalities' responsibility for medical rehabilitation work aimed at people who are released from institutions and hospitals must be defined more clearly and the services provided in this area must be consolidated.

Treatment at Outpatient Clinics
More and more diseases and health complaints can be treated better and more effectively at outpatient clinics, i.e. without admitting the patient to a hospital. More funding of early treatment at outpatient clinics and day surgery can help reduce the number of people who suffer from chronic, steadily worsening complaints. It will also be best for the patients to live at home during the treatment when this is possible and reasonable. Thus, outpatient clinic measures must be developed in many fields so that physical and mental complaints can be detected earlier and more people can be treated faster. In psychiatry, the funding of regional psychiatric centres will be an important way of meeting this need. In somatic medicine, many outpatient services providing examinations, operations and treatments that do not require admission to a hospital can be established by reorganising medical hospitals and the emergency services. New information technology will give outpatient clinic health services throughout the entire country greater opportunities to conduct examinations and perform operations in co-operation with the hospitals.

Modernisation
In order be able to make better and more efficient use of our hospitals, the stock of buildings and equipment must be modern and in good condition. It is also crucial for the safety and well-being of patients and staff that hospitals, institutions and outpatient clinic programmes be inviting and well-maintained. There will also be an increasing need to purchase new technology in fields such as telemedicine. Hence, in the coming years an extensive upgrading and investment plan must be implemented in the public health service. Among other things, this must include the construction of hotels for discharged hospital patients and the expansion of nursing home places for patients ready for discharge from both medical and mental hospitals. Otherwise, a lack of hospital beds will create new bottlenecks that may frustrate attempts to improve the utilisation of the treatment and operation capacity. Likewise the construction of centres providing auxiliary aids and appliances and the expansion of home care services, both of which can help the patients avoid longer hospital stays, should be stepped up.

Personnel Resources
Limited access to personnel has long been an important cause of overwork and cost pressures in the public health services. In particular, more doctors, nurses, psychologists and surgical technicians must be educated. The authority to plan, organise and approve this education and to allocate the personnel resources must lie with the public authorities and not be left to the medical professions' own interest organisations. Much can also be achieved through short-term measures that provide better use of existing personnel and financial resources. The arrangements for financing contracted specialists must be altered so that they are affiliated with the hospitals and can be included in an equitable common health programme for the good of all patients. For the same reason, the right to have a supplemental job in a competing private health service should be regulated more strictly. At the same time, normal working hours, internships and arrangements with duty doctors on second call must be better accommodated so as to give a better utilisation of the hospitals.
At present the lack of personnel is especially great in rural regions. An increase in the educational capacity, especially in Northern Norway, will be an important policy instrument for ensuring access to medical personnel in rural regions.

Comprehensive Management
If the total capacity in the medical and mental hospitals is to be completely utilised, patients must be effectively guided to hospitals that have places available regardless of the county or health region. The so-called transfer patient scheme should be devised and implemented in such a way that it better promotes this objective. National authorities must be given the clear responsibility to see that this happens and to follow up performance requirements associated with the framework grants. It is necessary to establish more standardised criteria and routines that ensure common practices for keeping waiting lists so that all counties will be subject to similar performance requirements. A division of functions among hospitals should be organised that improves the quality of the treatment of patients and expedites the shortening of waiting lists. In order to encourage the best possible use of resources, some of the hospitals' income should be directly linked to their actual performance. At the same time, they should be given a fundamental framework grant, which ensures security and prevents differences from arising in the public health services. Co-operation between the home municipalities and the hospitals on the transfer of treated patients must be improved so that these persons do not occupy hospital beds too long or become corridor patients. The National Insurance Administration's reimbursement schemes for private hospitals and specialists must be amended with the clear objective of releasing funds to safeguard professionals in the national public health service.

Psychiatric Services
In order to ensure that the mental health services are capable of handling their growing workload, the range of psychiatric services must be given special attention in the coming years. It is necessary to make the municipalities' obligations clearer and less ambiguous by enacting them into law. The municipal medical centres' psychiatric and psychological expertise and ability to carry out preventative treatment, active after-care and other follow-up activities must be enhanced. Co-operation among the municipalities on these matters is also welcomed. If the patients cannot get adequate help from the local services in the municipalities, the county psychiatric centres should provide treatment. These services must be expanded in all of the counties and must offer both qualified day treatment and short-term institutional stays. At the next level of services, a sufficient number of mental hospital places and child psychiatric services of various types should be created at the regional and county levels. Moreover, there is currently a lack of psychiatric treatment programmes aimed at youth, and this part of psychiatry must also be bolstered. Mental patients must then be provided with suitable housing and care services in their home municipalities so that they can avoid long-term stays in hospitals when it is no longer relevant or necessary to provide active treatment. The home municipality should have comprehensive responsibility for further follow up of the individual, both as regards child psychiatric services, other mental health services, and other measures, such as offers of work and education.

Alternative Treatment
It is natural and important for both the society and the individual to constantly search for new possibilities of preventing and curing diseases and complaints. There has been a growing interest in alternative forms of treatment, which can be anything from traditions that have their own professional requirements and documented results to methods with uncertain effects. The alternative traditions' emphasis on nutrition, lifestyle and the human aspects of treatment have had important side effects. However, the critical test of new ideas and reforms must be whether they are in the patients' best interest. Intrinsically, diversity will often be of use in developing a broader empirical background. A more systematic research on and evaluation of the various alternative forms of treatment should therefore be conducted so that a better evaluation can be made of their possibilities and future place in the total provision of health care. In the public health system it should be made easier for doctors and nurses to acquire knowledge about alternative forms of treatment through post-school training and further education.

Fighting Crime

The Labour Party wants to guarantee each individual's security and improve the society's ability to prevent violations of the law.
The neighbourhood police posts should be expanded so that they can conduct more preventive work and increase the efforts against petty crime. Measures such as stricter gun control laws and rehabilitation plans for prisoners will help create a safer society.

Prevention of Crime
An important aspect of the prevention of crime consists of developing good leisure-time services and character-building measures for children and adolescents. If hazing, violence, the sale of drugs, vandalism and petty theft are regarded as less serious in youth milieu, these activities and more serious violations of the law may increase. Prohibitions against hazing should become law so that the seriousness of harassing other people becomes clearer to everyone. In the school system and the national service, topics such as violence and persecution should be included in the instruction plans. Every single school should prepare plans of action for combating violence and hazing, and the arrangement with student mediators must be expanded. Speculation in violence in video films and on various TV channels can help create a culture of violence and violent attitudes. Similar routines and rules should therefore be established for the control of videograms as those that exist for films in cinemas. The same standards for violent scenes must be made applicable for Norwegian television channels as for cinema showings.

Being There
Human contact by its very nature makes people feel more secure. Fear and uncertainty are not as likely to develop in pleasant, well-maintained public places where people gather. Everyone doing sanitation work and other jobs on streets, in parks, in cemeteries, in station areas and in other public places helps create a greater feeling of security. Local communities become safer when the residents care about each other and know how they should behave if they witness violence, crime or vandalism. In crime-prone residential neighbourhoods, residential community workers can help prevent conflicts and deterioration. Hiring young unemployed persons as supporting companions in schools helps prevent persecution of weaker pupils and gives young people good, important jobs. Especially in urban neighbourhoods the presence of responsible companions can enhance the sense of security. Far more of those who serve non-military national service should do work aimed at preventing violence in co-operation with schools, youth programmes, senior citizens centres and voluntary organisations. It will be important here to include parents, the youth themselves and others in late-night patrols, youth patrols and other ways of mobilising the public against violence and the conditions that give rise to violent behaviour.

More Neighbourhood Police Posts
A visible police presence creates a feeling of security and prevents crime. Close contact between the police and the population should be arranged so that everyone has his or her own regular police officer to contact. Giving each neighbourhood policeman his own street or residential neighbourhood to patrol is a way of working that generates trust and that gives the police a good knowledge of local problems. Established police contacts who regularly visit schools, senior citizens centres, kindergartens, recreational clubs and other gathering places to exchange information help prevent feelings of insecurity. The most important target group for the police's preventive work should be youth in danger of becoming delinquents. Priority should be given to visiting youth milieu to counteract gang crime and violent rivalry among youth gangs. More neighbourhood police posts should be established where this is expedient in order to provide a sense of security and more accessible public services. We also want to preserve the district police service's knowledge of local conditions and its closeness to the population in rural areas. If these measures are to be conducted on a broad, permanent basis, a planned expansion of the neighbourhood police posts will be required. In order to make this possible, the teaching capacity of the National Police Academy must be greatly expanded in the coming years.

Security in The Home
A large number of violent episodes, burglaries and thefts occur in the home. If it is uncertain whether the police have the capacity to come to the scene of the crime and the percentage of solved crimes is too low, confidence in the rule of law will be undermined. Crime does not just directly hurt the victims. Many more people are left with a feeling of insecurity and anxiety in their everyday life. Fear and isolation will quickly be the result, especially among the elderly. The expansion of the neighbourhood police posts should help solve these problems. More visible and accessible police in residential areas will be enough in itself to reduce petty crime and fear, but other measures, such as the co-operation of the police with the child welfare service to serve as child welfare guards and the Help-Your-Neighbour action will also be of great importance. Personal emergency response systems and escort assistance services for the elderly and others who need help are other important measures for counteracting insecurity, and the neighbourhood police must help establish a special alarm system for people who are subjected to violent threats. In a large number of the serious accidents and episodes in the home, firearms are involved. Reducing the large number of private weapons would therefore be a preventive measure in its own right. The need for storing the Home Guard's weapons and those to be used in a mobilisation in the home should be reviewed again with the aim of reducing the scope of this arrangement. Gun-control laws should become stricter with new rules concerning the storing of weapons and renewal of permits. A national firearm register should be established in order to increase the possibilities of gun control and improve the follow-up of the provisions of the Act relating to firearms, ammunition, etc.

Reaction to Crime
There is a close relationship between the promptness with which a violation of the law is solved and punished and the general preventative effect of the punishment. A quick reaction is necessary in order to clearly demonstrate society's opposition to crime and show consideration for the victims. It is also unfortunate if the criminal is not brought to account within a reasonable period of time. The effort to promote a faster processing of criminal cases should be given even greater priority. First-time criminals and perpetrators of violent acts must not be allowed to remain at large for a long time before the society reacts. The punishment should be sufficiently severe to reflect the seriousness of the crime and reduce the danger of recurrence. Use of a security cell should be kept to a minimum, and the arrangement should be evaluated. Individual rehabilitation plans incorporating measures that can help the convicts to lead a law-abiding life should counteract relapses and be linked with after-care. Conflict resolution boards must be utilised more actively to prevent violations of the law among youth below the age of criminal responsibility. In order to improve the chance that all relevant information in a court case will be brought to light, witnesses should be given greater security through the establishment of a witness protection programme.
Victims of Crime
The victim's position should be strengthened. Particularly in violent cases judges must more frequently allow the victim to testify without having to confront the accused. The aggrieved party must be kept well-informed about the charges, the progress of the criminal case and the final sentence, and they must have the option of being kept informed about whether the accused is remanded in custody, released, etc. A separate emergency treatment centre for victims of violent crimes has proven to be a good measure for providing immediate help
and preventing post-traumatic stress disorder. These centres should be expanded and should co-operate with other public measures in the effort to combat street violence and family violence. In addition, the victims of computer crime will often find themselves in especially difficult situations. They may feel forced to take into consideration the firm or company's reputation and position in the stock market, etc. when they assess whether to report a crime. It is necessary to develop routines for and attitudes to this type of crime, which can better prevent it from spreading undetected. Technologically advanced forms of crime make new demands on methods of investigation, legislation and the court system, among other things as regards the protection of victims. The police and court authorities' should therefore pay more attention to this field in the coming years.

Violence and Injustice against Women
Investigations indicate that only a small minority of the actual number of rapes are reported. This is a serious security problem that can be reduced through various support and follow-up measures and improvements in the court system. Under the direction of the emergency service a treatment centre for victims of violence and rape should be developed where the victims can receive qualified help. These centres should be organised into a nation-wide network of centres with expertise on sexual offences. The women's aid refuges throughout the country are also very important for providing rape victims with suitable offers of adequate housing and help and follow-up during a difficult period. The support of the refuges must continue, and greater attention should be given to helping children who come to the centres together with the victims of rape. We want to request that the sentence for rape be made more severe. The treatment and prevention of relapses should be included in the rehabilitation plans and the after-care for sexual offenders. A national DNA register will increase the possibility of proving guilt. The so-called peremptory challenge rules pertaining to the appointment of lay judges must be followed in such a way that, if possible, just as many women as men are appointed in each individual case. Pimping activities in connection with prostitution are prohibited. Few are convicted for pimping, however, relative to the presumed extent of these activities. This is because prosecution pursuant to the current legislation is difficult. Thus, we want to have the penal code amended in this area so that more pimps can be arrested and convicted for these activities. Furthermore, the whole execution of the penal code should be reviewed from a woman's perspective with the aim of increasing awareness and influencing the attitudes of the police, the judicial system and the society in general.

White-collar Crime
Types of crime associated with money laundering, deliberate recurrent bankruptcy (the Phoenix syndrome), misappropriation of funds, financial transactions, illegal money-making schemes, insider trading on the stock market, etc. are evolving rapidly. They are often branches of international organised mafia activities. In order to better expose this crime, there is a need for considerable state-of-the-art expertise and effective international police collaboration. New funding and better regulations are needed if police and justice systems are going to be able to deal with white-collar crime more aggressively. If there is a suspicion of any kind of punishable offence, financial institutions, estate agents, stockbrokers, securities funds and investment trust companies must be required to investigate the matter and report on it to the National Authority for the Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime in Norway (¯kokrim). Economic guarantees should be given more often to administrators in bankruptcy who want to investigate possible violations of the law in bankrupt estates that no longer have any worth. More resources should be concentrated on tracing the profits from white-collar crime and filing claims to impound them. White-collar crime must not pay either, and it is of great importance that the profits from punishable offences be confiscated and not be hidden away until after the sentence has been served.

Work against Substance Abuse

The Labour Party wants to intensify its efforts to combat substance abuse and improve treatment measures so that more people can receive suitable help.
The best way to combat new and old patterns of abuse is to increase the preventive work and limit the availability of the intoxicating substances. At the same time the range of available measures to help abusers should be co-ordinated and strengthened in order to help more people master their own lives and avoid relapses.

Preventative Work
People's own attitudes and ability to set boundaries for themselves can best prevent the spread and abuse of intoxicating substances. It is especially important that children and youth receive information and develop values that cause them to reject all drugs and other substance abuse. New patterns of abuse with so-called designer drugs and performance-enhancing drugs, but also illegal and legal alcohol abuse and multiple substance abuse, threaten youth culture. In order to prevent substance abuse, crime, hazing, violence and intolerance, these and related topics must be incorporated into the curricula at all grade levels. Mother and child health centres and school health services should actively inform people about the symptoms and effects of substance abuse. More interaction with immigrant organisations is necessary in order to develop preventative measures in the new minority communities. The schools and municipalities should co-operate with parents, housing co-operatives, neighbourhood police posts, recreational clubs and voluntary organisations in devising general prevention plans in the local communities. Interaction with local committees in The Tripartite Committee for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Problems in The Workplace (AKAN) should also enter into this work. The Labour Party wants to help bolster the outreach activities in municipalities with extensive substance abuse problems and to see that more services are provided to the children and youth of parents with substance abuse problems.

Restricting Availability
At the same time as people's ability to set their own limits with regard to intoxicating substances is important, the society must effectively limit their availability. If it becomes easier for youth and others to acquire intoxicating substances, the danger increases that more of them will become abusers. Therefore, it is of great importance that no more intoxicating substances be legalised. The Labour Party will consistently reject all proposals to this effect. To effectively combat the sale and smuggling of drugs and the criminal organisations responsible for these activities, we are in favour of more and better international co-operation among police and customs authorities. Doctors' prescriptions of medicines must be monitored, and they should be required to keep a record of all preparations that they prescribe. Those who apply for a liquor license must submit a certificate of good conduct and a tax certificate. The municipalities should make sure that the compliance of license holders with the law is strictly controlled, including the rules prohibiting the serving of excess quantities of alcohol and the serving or sale of alcohol to minors. Violations of these provisions must result in quick and consequential reactions and suspension of the license.

Treatment outside of Institutions
It is best if the assistance to and treatment measures for substance abusers can be provided in the places where they will later have their residence. This will make it easier for them to prepare themselves for tackling the demands and challenges of daily life without relapsing into substance abuse. An assistance scheme outside of the institutions must be comprehensive and include suitable job and education offers, day treatment, and relevant housing measures with active follow-up and support. These resources should be shifted toward more funding of this kind of comprehensive assistance in everyday life instead of being used solely for the purchase of treatment services in institutions. There should, however, be available round-the-clock places for short-term stays in institutions, which can be utilised, if necessary, in especially difficult phases of the treatment. Children of substance abusers must be ensured immediate help in times of crisis. In order to give relapsed clients opportunities to live a normal, worthwhile, everyday life, it will be important to make the experiments with methadone treatment permanent. This must be done in controlled forms, and it should still be based on the goals of totally curing the patients through treatment and making them capable of functioning normally in society.

Rehabilitation Planning
Many people who serve prison sentences have problems with substance abuse - whether it be drugs and alcohol or new patterns of abuse. Their criminal actions often have a close relationship to this abuse. While they are serving their sentences, it is possible to arrange a long, continuous period of treatment. In order to prevent constant relapses to crime and intoxicating substances, long-term inmates should be given the right and obligation to plan their rehabilitation, i.e. qualified personnel should co-operate with the prisoners to develop binding rehabilitation plans for each of them. Among other things, these should include the prevention and treatment of any substance abuse that may occur and should build up each prisoner's ability to master his or her own life situation. Thus, they must also deal with follow-up measures for preventing relapses after the sentence has been served. This work should be given much greater priority in the prison service than it is at present, and the prisons must be given expertise and resources for achieving this task.

Detention during Treatment
When there is an immediate danger to a substance abuser's life and health, or when they, by their own consent, want to ensure that there will be no interruption in their treatment, and when pregnant women are abusers, they can be admitted and detained for treatment in an institution. If abusers want to be admitted for longer than the specified three month period, they must consent to a longer treatment period with the possibility of detention. In this way they can avoid an interruption in the treatment and release with the danger of a relapse. It is necessary to give the next of kin a better opportunity of contacting the proper authorities when they fear that their children's or closest relatives' life and health are in danger because of substance abuse. If, despite repeated requests, the social welfare system does not implement measures to assist them, the next of kin should be able to appeal the case, to the proper supervisory authority, i.e. the county governor, who must promptly look into the matter and give an answer as quickly as possible.

Follow-up and After-care
For substance abusers who are undergoing treatment, a special plan must be devised with emphasis on continuity and co-ordination of measures that are supposed to lead the person away from further abuse. This plan should be devised and followed up by a special support group in the abuser's home municipality. It must be based on faith that the person in question wants a change, and take into consideration the individual's opportunities and experiences. Everyone involved should be included in a series of measures which have the goal of enabling the abuser to function normally in society. Voluntary organisations can play an important role in developing a network of human contacts and social support for the substance abusers. It is especially important to devise suitable housing measures and a plan for vocational training or schooling. At the workplaces the AKAN committees can provide support with their own network of personal contacts and measures for secure working conditions adapted to the capabilities of the person in question. Substance abusers must not be left on their own until these goals have been achieved and the danger of a relapse is very small. Regular reports must be submitted to the support group about how the rehabilitation work is working out. Over a long-term perspective of several years, the measures should be regularly evaluated to see whether they have ultimately proved successful.

Organisation of The Treatment Programme
There is a need for more comprehensive supervision and revision of the treatment measures in order to better co-ordinate them and ensure that the society's resources are used as effectively as possible. General requirements must be developed for the institutions that want to be included in public treatment plans. They should have qualified plans for the active support and follow-up of the clients after their release, and they should regularly evaluate and improve their special programmes. They must have fixed routines for reporting their results pertaining to relapses and interruptions in treatment and for feedback from abusers who have been released. They must co-operate with government regional resource centres and be able to carry out treatment with the capability of detention. The supervisory responsibility of the county governor and chief county medical officer should also include monitoring whether professional requirements and agreements are being followed up. In order to keep people from getting lost in the bureaucratic maze of the system, the overall responsibility for these measures and the most essential economic resources allocated for them must be located in one particular place in the system. This overall responsibility should be delegated to the municipalities that are most capable of assessing the individual's total support and treatment needs.

Better Public Utilisation of Resources

The Labour Party wants to improve the utilisation of resources in the public sector by reorganising and co-ordinating its activities in response to new needs and opportunities.
Even though we have a public sector that we can be proud of, it is necessary
to steadily improve efficiency and reorganise to handle new tasks. In particular a clearer specification of the responsibilities of the various administrative levels and a greater focus on results are needed. The public services manage very valuable assets and make decisions that affect everyone in the society. Active democratic supervision of these services is needed in order to counteract arbitrariness, unnecessary bureaucracy and remoteness from the users.

Results
Considerably greater emphasis is often given to plans than to results. Elected bodies and their administrative offices rarely pay as much attention to reports on objectives that have been achieved as they do to the preparation of next year's budget. Weaknesses in the service programmes and the deficient implementation of resolutions made by elected bodies may thus have few or no repercussions, which in turn will give unintended signals. The annual budget processes should be streamlined so that more time and resources can be freed for achieving objectives and supervising public-sector activities that do not achieve their goals. In a continuous efficiency improvement and restructuring process, it is important to have a close, regular dialogue with employees who are affected by the process, so as to thereby achieve the best possible results.

Incentives
Public services should be rewarded for being successful. A good utilisation of resources and achievement of goals must be encouraged and rewarded to a greater extent. It is better to give extra funds to those who achieve their goals than to those who fall behind and operate with a deficit. Funds that are saved should be transferred less frequently from one budget period to the next and invested instead in better services. Documented achievement of goals in priority fields should be rewarded with extra funds. In order to carry this out in a fair way, better tools are needed for measuring efficiency, quality and user satisfaction. As these tools are developed in the individual fields, more performance-related financing should be introduced. In this way we can ensure that increased allocations will benefit the population in the form of more and better services. Employees and administrators in public-sector activities should also derive benefits from improving their productivity. Whether it concerns provisions for training and an improved working environment or types of bonus pay, all employees should be treated equally.

Utilisation of Time
The public sector has important effects on people's schedules in the broad sense of the word. In all fields it should be evaluated whether the utilisation of time is optimal and adapted to new needs. Plans should be made to further shorten the period of national service within the constraints that are dictated by a justifiable level of training and preparedness. National health insurance funds should be used to a greater extent for operations and treatment in hospitals, so that more people can get more quickly back to work. If public-sector offices could stay open at times when people were free, fewer working hours would be lost because people had to take leave from their own job in order to visit them. Likewise, shorter administrative periods for planning and building matters would spare the business community and housing contractors many delays and much uncertainty. Better use of buildings and personnel resources at universities and colleges can increase the amount of studying done each year and reduce the total period of study. A critical review of this sort of the effects of the public sector on the population's and the society's utilisation of time should be made in all service areas.

A Clear Division of Responsibility
In order to keep users and clients from getting lost in the bureaucratic maze of the system, a clearer division of responsibility between the municipalities and counties is needed in many fields. The various levels of public administration should not be able to blame each other when persons with treatment needs have to wait too long for a place in an institution. As a general rule, the home municipalities should have the overall responsibility for providing and financing suitable treatment measures. Government funds for treatment measures should mainly go to the municipalities since they have primary responsibility for their inhabitants. A clear responsibility for rehabilitation, follow-up, housing measures, home visits and employment after a stay in an institution must be delegated to the municipalities through provisions of laws and regulations - whether it concerns psychiatry, child welfare or the care of substance abusers. We want to conduct a broad review of the division of responsibility and work among the municipalities, counties and state in order to make this as clear and expedient as possible. As a step in this process, we would also like to review the local government administration's workings, with the particular aim of facilitating a more flexible co-operation between the national and municipal governments at the local and regional levels.

The Use of Subsidies
The public subsidy arrangements must be followed up with requirements and controls to ensure that the available funds purchase as much welfare as possible. When the public sector, whether it be the public health services or other departments, enters into agreements with private institutions, they should generally pay a total price per service, which includes capital expenses, so that the total costs are clearly presented and carefully accounted for. The purchase of places in private institutions for child welfare, psychiatry, care of the elderly and care of substance abusers must undergo appraisals and meet performance requirements. Private kindergartens that require government and municipal subsidies should follow closely specified social considerations in their admissions policy. Refunds to doctors, physical therapists and psychologists are a major public expenditure that should be better managed through greater supervision. Rules that can be tested and requirements concerning the reporting of profits must also underlie all public support of voluntary organisations. The selection of co-operative partners and license-holders for bus companies and ferry connections that are based on public subsidies should generally be based on the use of normal competitive bidding.

Better Purchasers
A large share of the expenditures in the public sector are for purchases of goods and services. More professional supervision of purchasing in public-sector activities can lead to greater savings. Purchasing skills and strategies for conducting purchasing in a qualified and forward-looking way should be developed. The EEA rules provide greater opportunities for ensuring that the principle of open competitive bidding is employed to facilitate the best possible utilisation of resources in the public sector. Government, municipal and county activities must co-ordinate their purchases in order to strengthen their position as customers and achieve bigger discounts. The monopoly that private laboratories, pharmacies , booksellers, and others have enjoyed in practice on deliveries to public services should be abolished. Purchasing regulations and routines should be reviewed in all fields so as to ensure that bids and negotiations are used consistently and effectively to achieve savings. Considerable funds can be released for the further improvement of the general welfare through renegotiations of contracts in areas such as financial services, energy agreements, rents and maintenance.

Responsibility for Civic Tasks

The Labour Party wants to use public systems to equalise the distribution of wealth and develop welfare in all parts of the country.
The public sector should continue to be our most important means of achieving equal status, welfare and equalisation. It must therefore be developed and improved through the allocation of greater resources. We must create organisational systems that enable the public sector to meet new challenges. The Labour Party wants to ensure democratic control of the public service programmes. The public sector should be responsible for the most essential services in important areas of welfare, but we also want to make use of programmes run by non-profit organisations, by the co-operative movement and by private businesses. Programmes created through the private initiative of people who join together to solve problems for the common good are a valuable addition to public systems and a good alternative to private activities that are conducted on a commercial basis.

Democratic Control of Welfare Services
Democratic control of public sector tasks and services can be exercised in various ways, depending on the nature of the task. In many areas, public responsibility and control require that the task must also be carried out under the direction of public authorities, e.g. the execution of authority by the police and military on behalf of the common good. This is also the case for the majority of tasks in the education, health and welfare sectors. These welfare services are among the most important instruments we have at our disposal for creating a just and equitable distribution of wealth. Therefore, the public sector must govern the public service programmes in their entirety and be the main provider of services. If private businesses pursuing profits are allowed to take over important functions, this will gradually lead to changes in priorities and a diminishing of the elected bodies' possibilities of comprehensively and justly governing the utilisation of resources. The pursuit of short-term profits must not result in the loss of overall coherence, quality, important expertise or the rights and security of employees. In order to make the public sector capable of meeting new challenges, the Labour Party wants to initiate a number of positive restructuring processes. This restructuring must occur in close collaboration with the employees and their organisations and on the basis of thorough analyses of needs and consequences. Efficiency improvements must benefit the users by leading to an increased quality and broader programme of services.

Yes to Non-profit Organisations, Co-operative Measures and Private Initiative
Non-profit organisations, foundations and co-operative enterprises offer services and solve problems on behalf of the public sector. These are included in public-sector plans in various areas, such as the care of the elderly and treatment programmes for substance abusers. These programmes will continue to be necessary in order to ensure sufficient capacity and diversity. In addition, more and more individuals and groups are taking their own initiative and getting together to solve problems for the common good - through groups of parents, neighbourhood associations and various organisations. Parents who start family kindergartens are one example of this trend. The Labour Party wants to support and help facilitate initiatives of this kind. Private initiative shows that people are willing to take direct responsibility for the general welfare, which strengthens the society at large. In order to distinguish private initiative from commercial enterprises on the one hand and from the public provision of services on the other, we want to have special legislation that clarifies the role of and working conditions for activities of this kind.

Yes to Co-operation with Private Businesses
In some areas of welfare the public authorities co-operate with private businesses on certain services. Among other things, this is the case in the kindergarten sector. We want to continue to have this kind of co-operation between the public and private sectors. One condition for these kinds of approaches is that democratic control of the overall activity, the quality and the distribution of the service is ensured. We do not want to allow key tasks in the education, health and welfare sector to be submitted for bids and turned over to private companies. The majority of the tasks in these areas must be carried out by the public sector. Private-sector service companies should only function as a supplement. If the private sector accounts for most of the services offered in an area, the possibility of democratic control, responsibility and the choice of priorities in this area will gradually diminish.

Yes to Municipal and State-owned Enterprises
When the democratic responsibility for a civic task does not need a close day-to-day follow-up, public enterprises with their own boards are a suitable form of organisation. In this kind of public enterprise the board has the authority to organise the business itself on the basis of the goals for the services that have been specified by the elected representatives. By organising a service as a public enterprise, the elected representatives retain the possibility of discussing and determining goals and strategies for the business. This is particularly necessary in areas where important socio-economic policy tasks must be taken care of, e.g. energy supply. Pure market solutions in an area such as this can lead to the formation of private monopolies.

Yes to Publicly-owned Companies
When we want to have democratic control over tasks that should be accomplished through competition among several actors in a market, publicly-owned limited companies or companies created by special legislation are a suitable form of organisation. With a public limited company it is possible to attend to political objectives specified by elected bodies. At the same time the business can operate in the market in the same way as private businesses. Public limited companies ensure the possibility of political control in areas that it would otherwise be impossible to control because they are dominated by private-sector actors in a market. For example, Telenor can attend to important political objectives in a telecommunications and computer market that is characterised by strong private-sector actors.

Democratically Controlled Bids
The use of bids in the public sector should occur in areas where there is real competition, e.g. in the building and construction industry. The contracts that are signed should be of limited duration and allow for the possibility of demanding renegotiations or advertising a new round of competitive bidding. With public bids the elected bodies are the ones who determine what is to be done and what requirements must be met. For the Labour Party it is crucial that companies that are considered for public projects should have contractual wage rates and working conditions. They must have certificates showing that their tax affairs are in order and that they accept apprenticeship schemes and clauses prohibiting the illegal use of one-person firms as important contract terms. If the whole public sector consistently follows this up, it will result in more orderly conditions in the business community in general.