Social Justice: transforming lives

This publication, Social Justice: transforming lives, sets out the Coalition Government's strategy of 'an ambitious new vision for supporting the most disadvantaged individuals and families in the UK'.

It identifies 2 broad areas of focus:

'First, prevention throughout a person’s life, with carefully designed interventions to stop people falling off track and into difficult circumstances. This starts with support for the most important building block in a child’s life – the family – but also covers reform of the school and youth justice systems, the welfare system, and beyond to look at how we can prevent damaging behaviours like substance abuse and offending.

Second, the strategy sets out our vision for a ‘second chance society’. Anybody who needs a second chance in society should be able to access the support and tools they need to transform their lives. Delivery must be focused on providing these services. Early intervention, social investment, payment by results, multi-agency delivery – these should be the watchwords for every government department, local authority and private or voluntary sector provider in the coming years.'

(The Rt. Hon. Iain Duncan Smith Chair, Social Justice Cabinet Committee Secretary of State for Work and Pensions)

Contents

Introduction
The scale of the challenge
Measuring multiple disadvantage
Why this Government believes that a new approach is necessary
A new ethos
The importance of finding new solutions
The Social Justice Cabinet Committee
Related strategies
A lifecycle approach

Chapter 1: Supporting families
The problem
Relationship quality and stability
Family formation
Family breakdown
Changing the narrative
What Government is doing
The future

Chapter 2: Keeping young people on track
The problem
What Government is doing
The future

Chapter 3: The importance of work
The problem
Challenging the culture of worklessness
The future

Chapter 4: Supporting the most disadvantaged adults
The problem
Building a clearer picture
New approaches to tackling multiple disadvantages
The future

Chapter 5: Delivering Social Justice
The need for strong local partnerships and leadership
Creating the right environment for innovative delivery
The role of a new social economy
The future