User:Judgegeoffrey/Centre For Social Justice

The Centre For Social Justice is an independent British political think tank on social reform. It was set up by the Rt. Hon. Iain Duncan Smith, a former leader of the Conservative Party, currently Secretary Of State For Work & Pensions in David Cameron's Coalition Government, to concentrate on finding and supporting new and innovative grass-roots approaches to fighting poverty. Though set up and run by prominent Conservatives, the CSJ has involved figures from other parties in its award schemes, such as Labour MPs Frank Field, John Reid, and David Blunkett, and Liberal Democrat MPs Menzies Campbell and Charles Kennedy[1]. Contents 1 Activities 2 Publications 3 Policy 4 People 5 Awards 6 Criticism 7 References 8 External links [edit]Activities

The CSJ holds an annual awards ceremony, the CSJ Awards, to recognise, reward and celebrate grassroots organisations making an exceptional contribution to tackling poverty. For the 2009 Awards a prize fund of £70,000 was available. The 2010 CSJ Awards will be hosted in July 2010. A documentary about the work of the CSJ and its awards was made by Sadie Kaye in 2009. The CSJ Alliance, launched in June 2005, provides a forum where established organisations in the field of poverty relief can work together to build long-term relationships with each other, and to provide an expert voice for politicians to be able to 'tap into' the relevant fields of expertise. The Inner City Challenge places MPs with a charity or voluntary group for a 4-day placement, giving them first hand experience of effective community work. Over 20 MPs have taken up the placement programme. The Griffiths Commission on Personal Debt, launched by Oliver Letwin in 2005, was supported and championed by CSJ. CSJ staff were seconded to the Commission The CSJ hosted the Secretariat of the Social Justice Policy Group, which was commissioned by Conservative Party leader David Cameron in January 2006 to conduct research and formulate policy on Britain's social problems, including addiction, debt, economic dependency, educational failure, and family breakdown. The Policy Group's interim report[2] was published in December 2006 and its final report contained 192 policy recommendations published in July 2007[3]. [edit]Publications

The CSJ has published works on family, marriage, local justice, benefits, the economy, gang culture, and children's welfare. They maintain a list on their website of these. [edit]Policy

The CSJ currently has the following Working Groups due to report in 2008 and 2009: Asylum Criminal Justice: Police Reform Criminal Justice: Courts and Sentencing Criminal Justice: Prison Reform Criminal Justice: Youth and Gang Crime Early Years Commission Economic Dependency and Unemployment Family Law Review Housing Looked After Children This builds on the following areas of policy expertise: Educational Failure Addiction Gambling Family Breakdown Debt Voluntary Sector [edit]People

Board of Directors Mark Florman, Chairman Louise Hobbs Dr Stephen Brien Ryan Robson

Advisory Council Philippa Stroud, Vice Chairman of the Advisory Council Camila Batmanghelidjh, CEO, Kids Company Baroness Deech, Former Principal of St Anne's College Oxford; former Senior Proctor of the University of Oxford; former chair of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority; former Governor of the BBC; and current Visiting Professor at Gresham College, London; sits as a Crossbencher in the House of Lords Johan Eliasch, Chairman and Chief Exec, Head N.V ; Chairman, Cool Earth; Prime Minister's Special representative on deforestation and clean energy Lord Brian Griffiths, Chairman of Board, Herman Miller Inc; International Advisor, Goldman Sachs International Limited Rt Hon William Hague, MP, Foreign Secretary and former leader of the Conservative Party Robert H Halfon, PPC and Political Director, Conservative Friends of Israel Syed Kamall MEP, Co-founder of Global Business Research institute, MEP for London Rt Hon Oliver Letwin MP, Chairman of Conservative Research Development Murdoch Maclennan, Chief Executive, Telegraph Media Group George Magan, Chairman of Carlton Capital Partners Tim Montgomerie, Editor, ConservativeHome Malcolm Offord, Partner, Charterhouse Patrick Regan, CEO of youth charity XLP Stephan Shakespeare,Chief Innovations Officer, YouGov Professor Lawrence Sherman,Wolfson Professor of Criminology, Cambridge University Her Grace the Duchess of Westminster David Willetts MP, Minister of State for Universities and Science

Staff Gavin Poole, Executive Director Chris Bullivant, Projects Director Juliette Ash, External Affairs Director Charlotte Pickles, Seconded to the Department of Work and Pensions Cara Walker, Fundraiser and Profile Manager Dr Jeffrey Bailey, Chairman in Residence Dr Samantha Callan, Chairman in Residence Gabriel Doctor, Senior Policy Consultant Christian Guy, Senior Policy Specialist Zoe Briance, CSJ Awards and CSJ Alliance Manager

Working Group Chairmen Jonathan Aitken Simon Antrobus Dr Stephen Brien Elly Farmer Dr David Hodson Kate Davies Martin Howe QC Ray Mallon Julian Prior Ryan Robson [edit]Awards

The CSJ won Prospect Magazine Think Tank of the Year 2009 The CSJ won Prospect Magazine Best Publication of the Year 2008 [edit]Criticism

Pink News noted[4] that the "Every Family Matters" report recommended "lesbians undergoing fertility treatment should not be able to automatically record a civil partner as a second parent", which Stonewall claimed was equating lesbian relationships with broken homes, and was "ludicrous" [edit]References

^ "The Centre for Social Justice - CSJ Awards 2009". Retrieved 2010-05-27. ^ Breakdown Britain: Executive Summary (pdf). Centre for Social Justice. 2006-12-14. ISBN 978-0-9556999-1-7. Retrieved 2010-05-27. ^ Breakthrough Britain: Chairman's Overview (pdf). Centre for Social Justice. 2007-07-04. ISBN 978-0-9556999-0-0. Retrieved 2010-05-27. ^ "Gay partners of parents should have less rights, says report by former Tory leader". Pink News. 2009-07-17. [edit]External links

Centre for Social Justice website. Conservative Party - Iain Duncan Smith profile Breakdown Britain, December 2006 Breakthrough Britain, July 2007 This article related to the politics of the United Kingdom, or its predecessor or constituent states, is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Categories: Political and economic think tanks based in the United Kingdom | British politics stubs