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Christian Guy joins Prime Minister's Downing Street team

Our Director, Christian Guy, will be leaving the CSJ next week to begin work in 10 Downing Street, serving the Prime Minister as a Special Adviser for welfare reform and opportunity.

Christian will be working within No.10's Policy Unit, which is led by former journalist Camilla Cavendish and reports directly to the Prime Minister, to help the Government deliver its commitment to build One Nation and true social justice.

As well as working with departments to roll out CSJ ideas like Universal Credit, Christian will be helping to develop big reforms for the future to transform lives and create opportunity in the poorest parts of our country.

Christian joined the CSJ in 2007, as an intern, and leaves having led the team for more than three years.  During his time in charge the CSJ has known increasing political impact - including work to inspire the Modern Slavery Act and many manifesto commitments at the last election - and has continued to win recognition as one of the UK's leading think tanks.

He will be missed but we thank him for what he has achieved here and wish him well for all he is to work on in government.

We will be in touch with more information about his replacement shortly.

Mark Florman, Chairman

CSJ hosts London Mayor Boris Johnson for a key note speech on inequality.

The CSJ hosted Mayor of London Boris Johnson for a major speech on how to tackle disadvantage.

The Mayor said the Conservatives must address inequality by improving housing, transport and education.

Highlighting the fact that the gap between the rich and poor has widened in the last 30 years, the Mayor said that this wealth gap would only be tolerated if the wealthy pay their fare share, if people on low incomes are better rewarded and if there is social mobility.

Johnson applauded the introduction of the national living wage, called for by the CSJ, which was included in the 2015 Budget.

However he also said: “I think it outrageous that there are chief executives earning about 450 times the average pay of their employees and yet whose firms are mainlining hundreds of millions of pound in taxpayer-funded subsidies in the form of In Work credits that allow them to get away with low pay”.

Johnson pointed out that people who live in poverty are more likely to be murdered and burgled.

He criticised the middle-class dominance of top jobs, urging the Tories to be the ‘door-bursters’ of society for children from poorer backgrounds.

Johnson also said that schools must give children qualifications and aspirations to take on big jobs.

The speech was covered in the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, on Radio 4, the Evening Standard the Independent and the Spectator.

CSJ holds annual Alliance Conference

The CSJ held its annual Alliance Conference which brought together its alliance members from across the UK for a day of inspirational talks, training seminars and networking. The CSJ's Alex Burghart introduced the day with Life Peer and former CEO of employment charity Tomorrow's People giving the keynote address.

Minister for Civil Society, Rob Wilson, gave the ministerial address to the audience of over 150 charities. 

Other notable speakers durirng the day included Charles Farr, Director General of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism at the Home Office.

CSJ data shows one thousand children in care repeatedly forced to move school

One thousand children in care have attended three or more schools within a single academic year, according to new figures obtained by the Centre for Social Justice.

The data, taken from the academic year 2013/14, shows shocking instability for hundreds of vulnerable young people across England. In some local authorities, nearly one in ten children in care moved schools on average once a term or more, with some students attending five schools or more in one academic year. Among students in their critical GCSE year, more than 10 per cent of students in the worst five local authority areas moved schools on average once a term or more.

As laid out in its January report, Finding Their Feet, the CSJ recommends the wider adoption of ‘scorecards’ to monitor stabiliy for children in care in each local authority.

The indicators laid out in the report include prevalence of early and repeat parenthood, the number able to ‘stay put’ with foster carers after their 18th birthday, the number going on to apprenticeships, employment and higher education, the number of schools children have been to (particularly in crucial exam years), the number of foster carers they have had, and the number of social workers.

The story was covered on the ITV News at 10 and by the Press Association. CSJ Policy Director Alex Burghart wrote a comment piece on Conservative Home.

CSJ in the News

CSJ statistics on the prevalence of legal highs was featured in the Economist.

The Economist also featured an interview with CSJ Director Christian Guy on tax credits.