The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has officially marked the start of a landmark study that will look at the causes of social breakdown in Britain and recommend a series of robust policies to tackle poverty.
Breakthrough Britain II, which will run until 2014, will be a forensic examination of the UK’s social fabric and will see CSJ staff take evidence from around the country.
Before officially launching the study this week, the CSJ published some of its recent policing – which showed the majority of British people say at least one of their local communities is plagued by broken families, crime and poor schools. The story was covered in various outlets, including the Daily Express and the Scotsman.
The investigation is a follow-up to the original Breakthrough Britain, published in 2007 – which Prime Minister David Cameron recently said had influenced his Government greatly.
The original Breakthrough Britain review led the CSJ to identify five ‘pathways to poverty’: family breakdown, economic dependency and worklessness, educational failure, drug and alcohol addiction and serious personal debt. It is anticipated Breakthrough Britain II, which will revisit these same ‘pathways’ as well as looking at the voluntary sector and how it responds to poverty, will have a significant impact on the main three party manifestos ahead of the 2015 General Election.
The CSJ will be delighted to hear from anyone who thinks they can bring innovative ideas to the Breakthrough Britain II study or have outstanding projects they want to recommend we look at. We can be contacted at: admin@centreforsocialjustice.org.uk