Welcome to the Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys' (CPRMB) commentary page.

If you are reading this then you are interested in the work we are doing and the work to be done. Our mission is to create the understanding and conditions for all men and boys to thrive  in their communities. Too many of our men and boys are in trouble. The statistics are stark. Some 5000 dead men a year from suicide. Three times the number killed on our roads. Ten percentage points fewer men than women going to university. Male life expectancy sinking. The number of young men in prison rising and nearly two thirds of young men listening to influencers offering the wrong messages about what it is to be a man. This is some doom loop. And all this against the drip feed of the idea that to be a male is to be toxic, innately dangerous, imminently harmful.

So, along with the many great organisations we intend to work with, the CPRMB has been set up to do three things. First we want to create a clearer understanding about what is actually happening to men and boys across seven interlinked areas: the economy, employability and skills; education; health; criminal justice; fatherhood and family, and portrayal of men in the media. This is why we will be publishing a quarterly Missing Men Monitor to track changes across these seven areas of focus in the official sources of data as an initial contribution to changing the public conversation about men and boys. Second we will act as a driver of best practice and what works by bringing key decision makers together with entrepreneurial changemakers to vire best practice across different places and regions of the UK. Finally we will develop new policy ideas with governments national, regional and local and then work with others to ensure the best ideas - the ideas that can deliver at scale - are supported.

The CPRMB is non aligned and non partisan. Our vision is a world where men and boys of all backgrounds thrive in their families and communities, one where the sexes can rise together by supporting each other. We do not ascribe to zero sum thinking. We need women and girls’ lives to improve as much as we need the same for men and boys. We all know there remain significant barriers to women and girls – from gender pay gaps to health, from gender stereotypes to the violence they endure – and so much more.

But we cannot continue to ignore the fact that too many men and boys in the UK have gone missing. They are missing from the economy. They are missing out on education. They are missing from society and families. To flourish, our economy and society need the energy and skills of men and boys and women and girls. So together let’s do better. Let’s understand the issues better. Let’s find solutions that are better.. And then let us apply those solutions better.

Nick Isles, Director, CPRMB