The Centre for Social Justice at the Conservative Party Conference 3 – 6 October 2010

FRINGE PROGRAMME

The CSJ is hosting a number of events in Birmingham, covering policy issues such as family breakdown, welfare reform, education, prison reform, drug and alcohol addiction, and children in care. This note gives information on the main events, along with details of high profile speakers, top lines and contact details. CSJ spokesmen are available for interview throughout the conference, and their contact details can be found at the end of this note. The Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, will be speaking at two major CSJ events; “How to make the UK the most family friendly country in Europe” and also “Dynamic Benefits: why, and how does it work?” The Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, will be speaking at the “Breakthrough Northern Ireland” event, and other events will be supported by Ministers and MPs including Tim Loughton MP, Crispin Blunt MP, and former Cabinet Minister Jonathan Aitken. Sunday 3rd October: Crown Plaza, Holiday Street. 12:45. Education Starts At Home: Uniting schools and parents against poverty. Top lines: • Education is the cornerstone of social mobility; however, thousands of children leave school every year illiterate • Educational failure and underachievement have huge social and financial costs – both to the individual and society • Parental interest and involvement is key: children whose parents are supportive and engaged are more likely to succeed at school Speakers include: Gavin Poole - Executive Director of the CSJ, Lord Bates - Conservative Party, Zenna Atkins - CEO of GEMS UK and former Chairman of OFSTED Sunday 3rd October: City Inn, Brindleyplace. 17:45. Will the Coalition Care? A fringe event on looked after children. Top lines: • Early intervention and prevention services are vital if outcomes for children in care are to be improved. Without, both the number of children at risk of entering and in care will rise and their problems will become increasing complex, putting unsustainable pressure on the resources in the care system that are tasked with addressing the needs of these children, such as social workers, foster carers and mental health care • Yet, investment in these vital services is at extreme risk. The continued fallout from the Baby Peter case, as well as an increase in problems such as domestic violence and mental health issues, are leading to a dramatic rise in child protection activity. The concern is that this will be exacerbated by the imminent spending cuts Speakers include: Tim Loughton MP - Department for Education, David Oldham - Chief Executive, Foster Care Associates, Ryan Robson - CSJ Children in Care Working Group (Chairman) Monday 4th October: City Inn, Brindleyplace. 08:00. Breakthrough Northern Ireland Top lines: • The CSJ argues that the time has come for the people and the politicians of the country to move on from the past and make a concerted attempt to create a healthier society • The CSJ report, Breakthrough Northern paints a grim picture of social breakdown in the Province, marked by high levels of worklessness, family breakdown, mental illness and addiction • The CSJ argues that the social ills of Northern Ireland are not irreversible. By promoting stronger families, through for instance reform of the tax and benefits system and by bringing in programmes such as early intervention to help troubled families, by tackling educational failure and by placing recovery at the heart of addiction treatment, the cycle of social decay can be broken Speakers include: Gavin Poole - Executive Director of the CSJ, Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Dr Samantha Callan - Chairman in Residence, Centre for Social Justice. Monday 4th October: Crowne Plaza, Holiday Street. 12:45. “We’re going to make this the most family friendly country in Europe” David Cameron. How to make it happen. Top lines: The most family friendly country is one that: • Takes active steps to prevent family breakdown • Frontloads help for parents during the earliest years of their children’s lives (includes support for them in their couple relationships) • Recognises the importance, wherever possible, of children being raised by both parents in the tax and benefit system – transferrable tax for married couples and reduction of the couple penalty Speakers include: Gavin Poole - Executive Director of the CSJ, Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Camilla Cavendish - Chief Leader Writer and Columnist, The Times. Tuesday 5th October: City Inn, Brindleyplace. 12:45 Criminal Justice: Restoring rehabilitation. Top lines: • Our work on the criminal justice seeks to demonstrate how poverty and crime are often linked – the criminal justice system picks up the pieces of social breakdown on a daily basis • Radical social reform (Breakthrough Britain) would get ahead of crime and take prevention seriously • We need to set the prison system a new clarity of purpose, support voluntary sector organisations to rehabilitate offenders, to tackle the re-offending crisis • We strongly welcome the new Government’s intention to review sentencing – particularly short sentences – and lead a rehabilitation revolution in our prisons Speakers include: Jonathan Aitken - Prison Reform Group Working Chairman, Crispin Blunt MP - Minister for Prisons and Probation, Rev. Paul Cowley - Caring for Ex-Offenders Tuesday 5th October, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Street. 12:45. Dynamic Benefits: Why and how does it work? Top lines: • 2.6m people have spent half of the last ten years on some form of out of work benefit; one in seven of all working-age households are dependent on benefits for more than half their income • Our welfare system fails to reward work, it is extremely complex to navigate and difficult to manage. It also penalises positive behaviours • Making work pay, by reducing the amount of benefits withdrawn as people move into work (the Marginal Tax Rate) will encourage claimants into enter work or take on more of it • Simplifying benefits into a single payment, administered by a single agency, with consistent rules that allow for flexibility in employment will help people to take up part time and flexible employment, as a route into full time work Speakers include: Gavin Poole - Executive Director of the CSJ, Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Fraser Nelson - Editor, The Spectator. Tuesday 5th October, City Inn, Brindleyplace. 17:45. More bang for your buck: Spending public finances wisely; Social return on investment. Top lines: • In the context of Comprehensive Spending Review it is vital that we understand where public spending delivers results • Yet we find that too often governments have failed to adequately support well-evidenced initiatives, such as early intervention, but continue to support less effective spending elsewhere • Our SROI report discusses how policy-makers can better adopt Social Return on Investment, and other evidence based approaches to public spending, to guarantee more bang for our buck Speakers include: Gavin Poole - Executive Director of the CSJ, Campbell Robb - Chief Executive, Shelter. Also note: Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Patron of the CSJ, will be “in conversation” with Andrew Rawnsley at 6pm on Tuesday 5th October, Hall 5 of the ICC. Centre for Social Justice spokesmen: The CSJ is able to offer spokesmen for comment on a variety of subjects, in addition to their planned events. For comment or interview requests, contact: Gavin Poole, Executive Director: 07793812925 Dr Samantha Callan, Chairman in Residence: 07906895347 Christian Guy, Senior Policy Specialist: 07889629476 Or Christian May, Media Intelligence Partners: 07876708262 A full schedule of Centre for Social Justice fringe events is attached to this document. Full event list: SUNDAY Rethinking older age Sunday 3 October 12.45pm - 2pm City Inn Panellists Penny Mordaunt MP Sara McKee, CSJ Older Age Working Group Chairman Christian Guy, CSJ Senior Policy Specialist Mo Smith, Regenerate Rethinking community cohesion: new neighbourhood solutions Sunday 3 October 12.45pm - 2pm City Inn Hotel, M2 Panellists Eric Ollerenshaw MP, PPS to Baroness Warsi as Minister of State Dr Jeff Bailey, CSJ Community Cohesion Working Group Chairman (Chair) Jas Baines, CSJ Community Cohesion Working Group Member Indy Johar, Co Founder Architecture 00 Education starts at home: uniting schools and parents against poverty Sunday 3 October 12.45pm - 2pm Crowne Plaza, Vista Suite Panellists Lord Bates Gavin Poole, CSJ Executive Director (Chair) Adele Eastman, CSJ Senior Policy Specialist Sarah Darton, Director Programme Delivery, Family Links Zenna Atkins, CEO of GEMS UK Education (Sponsor) Sponsor Personal debt roundtable Sunday 3 October 12.45pm - 2pm City Inn Hotel By invitation only Sponsor Preparing the workforce: new opportunities for the non-state sector Sunday 3 October 5.45pm - 7pm City Inn Hotel, M2 Panellists Andrew Selous MP, PPS to Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Gavin Poole, CSJ Executive Director (Chair) Sarah McKee, CSJ Economic Dependency Working Group member Richard Beard, CEO The Jericho Foundation Sean Williams, Managing Director, G4S (Sponsor) Sponsor Will the Coalition care? A fringe on looked after children Sunday 3 October 5.45pm - 7pm City Inn Hotel, M3 Panellists Tim Loughton MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Children and Families Ryan Robson, CSJ Children in Care Working Group Chairman (Chair) Ali Crossley, CSJ Policy Researcher David Oldham, CEO Foster Care Associates (Sponsor) Sponsor MONDAY Breakthrough Northern Ireland Monday 4 October 8am - 9am City Inn Hotel, M2 Panellists Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP, Secretary of Sate for Northern Ireland Gavin Poole, CSJ Executive Director (Chair) Dr Samantha Callan, CSJ Chairman in Residence Cliff Kennedy, CEO Oasis Caring in Action "We're going to make this the most family friendly country in Europe" David Cameron. How to make it happen Monday 4 October 12.45pm – 2pm Crowne Plaza Panellists Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP, Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions Gavin Poole, CSJ Executive Director (Chair) Dr Samantha Callan, CSJ Chairman in Residence Camilla Cavendish, The Times Columnist Anne Longfield, CEO 4 Children (Sponsor) Sponsor Voluntary sector funding in an age of austerity Monday 4 October, 12.45pm - 2pm City Inn Hotel, M2 Panellists Lord Wei, Government Adviser on the Big Society Chris Bullivant, CSJ Projects Director Zoe Briance, CSJ Alliance Manager Sponsor Social housing roundtable: new solutions, tomorrow's homes Monday 4 October 12.45pm - 2pm City Inn Hotel By invitation only Sponsor Improve mental health: reverse social breakdown Sunday 3 October 12.45pm - 2pm City Inn Hotel, M3 Panellists James Morris MP Dr Samantha Callan, CSJ Chairman in Residence (Chair) Hazel Cheeseman, Policy & Public Affairs Manager St Mungo's Prof Chris Thompson, Director of Healthcare Services, The Priory (Sponsor) Sponsor Social housing: freeing people from the housing trap Monday 2 October, 5.45pm - 7pm City Inn, M2 Panellists Andrew Selous MP, PPS to Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Gavin Poole, CSJ Executive Director (Chair) Dr Jeff Bailey, CSJ Chairman in Residence David Ellis, Group Business Development Director Catalyst Housing (Sponsor) Sponsors TUESDAY Sport and social justice: what is the goal? Tuesday 5 October 8am - 9am City Inn Hotel, M2 Panellists Tim Loughton MP, Minister for Sport in Schools (Invited Gavin Poole, CSJ Executive Director (Chair) Michael de Giorgio, CSJ Sports Working Group Chairman Richard Cooper, CEO The Source Café Building blocks - ensuring stable childhoods Tuesday 5 October 8am - 9am City Inn Hotel, M3 Panellists Andrea Leadsom MP Dr Jeff Bailey, CSJ Chairman in Residence (Chair) Dr Samantha Callan, CSJ Chairman in Residence Benita Refson OBE, Founder and CEO Place2Be (Sponsor) Sponsor Dynamic benefits: why and how does it work? Tuesday 5 October 12.45pm – 2pm Crowne Plaza. Vista Suite Panellists Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP, Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions Gavin Poole, CSJ Executive Director (Chair) Fraser Nelson, Editor, The Spectator Greg Walker, CEO Create James Reed, Director, Reed (Sponsor) Sponsor Addiction: what does a recovery oriented society look like Tuesday 5 October 12.45pm – 2pm City Inn Hotel, M2 Panellists David Burrowes MP Dr Jeff Bailey, CSJ Chairman in Residence (Chair) Christian Guy, CSJ Senior Policy Specialist Noreen Oliver, Founder and CEO BAC O'Connor Criminal justice: restoring rehabilitation Tuesday 5 October 12.45pm – 2pm City Inn Hotel, M3 Panellists Crispin Blunt MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Ministry of Justice Adele Eastman, CSJ Senior Policy Specialist (Chair) Jonathan Aitken, CSJ Prison Reform Working Group Chairman Paul Cowley, CEO Caring for Ex Offenders Sponsor Youth justice: prevention, prevention, prevention Tuesday 5 October 5.45pm - 7pm City Inn Hotel, M2 Panellists David Burrowes MP Mike Royal, CSJ Youth Justice Working Group Chairman Ali Crossley, CSJ Policy Researcher on Youth Justice Joe Russo, CEO Enthusiasm Trust More bang for your buck: spending public finances wisely. Social return on investment Tuesday 5 October 5.45pm - 7pm City Inn Hotel, M3 Panellists Claire Perry MP Gavin Poole, CSJ Executive Director (Chair) Deven Ghelani, CSJ Senior Researcher Mike Little, Darlington Campbell Robb, CEO Shelter (Sponsor) Sponsor