Double Take

On Double Take, we find the two hottest stories off the week, pull our best researchers out of the engine room of policymaking, and get their take on the week's tales.

Head of Welfare Ben Gregg and Head of Housing and Communities Josh Nicholson take on two of the biggest stories this week:

- The Waitrose employee sacked after trying to prevent a shoplifter from stealing some easter eggs

- Welfare spending overtaking income tax revenue for the first time.

Learn more about Ben's Welfare 2030 project at welfare2030.org.uk Contribute to Josh's High Streets Call for Evidence at: centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/britains-broken-high-streets

Listen to a star-studded panel discuss growing evidence of how social media is harming children and young people, and what government, schools, mental health professionals, and civil society can do together to address this national challenge.

This event came at a timely moment as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill proceeded through the House of Lords, providing a space to examine the case for raising the age of access to social media, and to consider how policy can better safeguard the wellbeing and development of children.

The CSJ report, Change the Prescription, published last year, found that change is required to protect children from exposure to harmful online content, which can have a detrimental impact on their mental health. Read it at centreforsocialjustice.org.uk.

Panel:

On November 17th, the CSJ and the CSJ Foundation held the annual CSJ Awards. The biggest names from showbiz, politics and philanthropy descended on Westminster to celebrate the best small charities of 2025. On the morning of the ceremony, the five winning charities talked to VAWG Activist and Broadcaster Sharon Gaffka about their work, what it's like being a small charity in 2025 and their asks of Government.

On the eve of Labour Party Conference, the CSJ are taking a plan to end rough sleeping to Liverpool - Housing First.

Read more at: www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/library/no-place-like-home

For our latest report Absent Ambition, we travelled across the UK talking to teachers and parents about the root causes of the absence crisis. Listen to Chief Executive Andy Cook and Senior Researcher Dan Lilley dissect these interviews and present our findings🤔 Thank you to CSJ Alliance Charity One-Eighty, the Steve Rigby Foundation, Mark Billyield and Yasmin Manzoor for their participation in this podcast. Read the full report here: centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/library/absent-ambition.

New CSJ analysis in our latest report, Unequal Returns, show that despite despite tens of billions invested in Pupil Premium (PP), outcomes for disadvantaged pupils remain deeply uneven. Some schools are seeing their attainment gap widen. Our report argues that the PP funding model must evolve into a smarter, more precise system – one that better reflects the realities of modern disadvantage and delivers real impact for the children it was created to help. To discuss its findings and the future of PP, we will be joined by:

No one in Westminster is talking about fatherlessness, but our Alliance of 700+ small charities tell us it’s a huge issue. That’s why our star-studded CSJ team came together to discuss it in the latest episode of Beyond Westminster.

It’s part of a new podcast series we’re launching, led by the voices of small charities. Informed by daily visits to our Alliance network, we’ll be taking hot-takes from the frontlines and bringing them right to the heart of SW1 by debating them on our podcast.

Kicking off this series is a CSJ Alliance charity in Darlington called Parents and Children Together North East (PACTNE), who provide supported housing for families at risk of losing their children to the care system. They say fatherlessness has had the biggest impact on their work.

Fatherlessness was also identified as one of the areas driving the crisis facing boys and young men in Lost Boys: State of the Nation. Find out more at lostboys.org.uk.

Host

Andy Cook, Chief Executive

Guests

Ed Davies, Research Director

Mercy Muroki, Development Director

Joe Shalam, Policy Director

'Beyond Westminster' returns on Mental Health Awareness Week for a discussion on the ‘Screen-Demic’ and what Government should do about it.

With the Safer Phones Bill going through the House of Commons, we ask why the Government has watered down its plans to protect young people.

This conversation draws on research conducted in Change The Prescription, the CSJ's landmark report into mental health which evidenced social media and smartphones as contributors to the rise in mental ill-health. Read it here: centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/library/change-the-prescription.

Host: Fraser Nelson - Times Columnist and former Editor of the Spectator

Special Guests: Sophie Winkleman - Actress, Charity Patron and Campaigner

Rt. Hon. Kit Malthouse MP - Former Policing Minister and Secretary of State for Education, Co-Sponsor of the Safer Phones Bill

Dr. Sanjiv Nichani OBE - Consultant Paediatrician, and Founder of Healing Little Hearts Global Foundation

Boys and young men are in crisis.

While the last hundred years have been marked by great leaps forward in outcomes and rights for women, in this generation it is boys who are being left behind. And by some margin. From the day they start primary school, to the day they leave higher education, the progress of boys lags behind girls.

On Wednesday 5th March, the Centre for Social Justice launched a State of the Nation report on Britain's Lost Boys with a star-studded panel speaking to an audience of politicians, charities and, most importantly, the young boys from around Britain who helped shaped the report. The panel included: 

Over the coming months, the CSJ will be looking for solutions to this growing problem. This report aims to paint a stark picture of what is happening in six significant areas of life. It makes the urgent case that action is needed. This report will not cover every issue facing young men and boys, but it is a start. CLICK PLAY to hear the panel discuss our findings.