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The Centre for Social Justice exists to learn from grassroots charities and organisations, and take their ideas to Westminster. In our view, if you want to make life-changing policy, it has to start from the front line.

Our canvassing happens throughout the year, up and down the country, with our 350 Alliance members. Below are some of the findings our team has made in the last couple of weeks, which we will use to keep shaping our policy work.

Criminal Justice: Rory Geoghegan

I visited an unassuming townhouse in Stoke Newington, home to Steps 2 Recovery, which was a CSJ award winner 2017. S2R might only be a small house with six bedrooms and a small team of people – but they are, on a daily basis, improving the lives of their clients and the wider community, by breaking the cycle on what for many becomes a persistent and prolific life of crime.

They take referrals from a wide network, including in-prison drug services such as Phoenix Futures and RAPt, as well as local probation and police teams. The team at Steps 2 Recovery (S2R) get impressive results. Six months on from completion of the S2R programme, 50 per cent of clients remain drug-free and in housing.

For those desperate to break free from a cycle of offending linked to their addiction, S2R offers the sort of second-chance that the CSJ would like to see much more widely available. It tackles the root causes of their addiction and working in partnership with others, secures housing for them.’

Education: James Scales

I recently met with Action Tutoring to learn more about their impressive work to help disadvantaged pupils improve academic attainment. The charity pairs volunteer tutors with pupils to build stronger subject understanding, academic skills and confidence. Its scheme aims to place personal tutoring, an increasingly prevalent commodity among more affluent families, within reach of those who cannot afford it.

Since its inception in 2011, Action Tutoring has grown quickly and now has programmes in London, Brighton, Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield and Liverpool. And there are encouraging signs that its programmes have served as effective conduits for academic progress: a recent independent impact assessment suggested that participating pupils achieved better GCSE grades than their non-participating counterparts.

The CSJ strongly supports Action Tutoring’s work. We are adamant that good quality education is one of the most effective pathways out of poverty and we have established an Education Unit this year to explore how every child can reach his or her full potential regardless of background.

Work: Dolly Theis

I spent some time this week with plumbing company, Pimlico Plumbers. Tucked away in a Lambeth side street, the headquarters is an astonishing hot bed of social mobility. Charlie Mullins OBE founded the company in 1979 after leaving school at 15 with no formal qualifications. After a four-year apprenticeship scheme, he set up his business and has continued to expand the company ever since.

His “no barriers” approach to business has worked. Yet he retains a strong commitment to social justice with an outstanding apprenticeship scheme. Most of his apprentices left school around 16 to embark upon the programme which sets them up for life; “in plumbing you’re never out of a job”.

When asked what barriers the apprentices faced many told me they were under enormous pressure at school to continue to university. Yet here they are, some as young as 18, not only earning money but living without the burden of tuition fee debt.

Top quality apprenticeship schemes are transformational and open to anyone regardless of background. If we are to properly address the skills gap and invest in our future workforce, apprenticeship schemes are an excellent place to start and should be the norm. They can mean someone without any formal qualifications from school is in work for life.

General elections matter because they give normal people, working on the frontline, a voice in politics. But in the fight for social justice, it’s what the CSJ tries to do every day.

If you would like a CSJ member to visit you, please contact Silvia, our Alliance Director, at Silvia.LeMarchant@centreforsocialjustice.org.uk