Beveridge: Then and Now - The Man with the Plan (film screening opportunity)
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#YWCR #TownsendTheatreProductions #TheManWithThePlan #InformalEducation #Edutainment #TheYouthWorkCommonRoom #Arts #Politics #SocialPolicy #WeAreEducators #politics #civilsociety
This article is a shout out and a promo to Universities, colleges, schools and youth and community providers who can use a screening of The Man With The Plan as a powerful catalyst to connect Beveridge’s “five giants” with the lived realities of young people and communities today and to open discussion, enhance curriculum, promote campaigning and community action.
By pairing the film with ongoing informal and/or structured discussions, the potential of creative responses and development of partnership work, providers can turn a one‑off cultural event into a sustained learning and social justice project. Keep reading to see how you can acquire a screening from Townsend Theatre Productions.
In the William Beveridge report on Social Insurance and Allied Services, the five “giant evils” blocking social progress: Want (poverty), Disease (inadequate healthcare), Ignorance (lack of education), Squalor (poor housing) and Idleness (unemployment and lack of decent work). His plan underpinned the post‑war welfare state, most famously the pre-cursor to the creation of the NHS, and offered an connected vision of social security, housing, employment and education as shared public goods rather than individual commodities.
Eighty-ish years on, in our sectors, it is arguable that whilst the reformation of language and scope for young people and communities are experiencing direct similarities in new forms: renewed poverty amid a cost‑of‑living crisis, housing precarity, education inequalities, pressures on health systems and insecure labour markets.
Increased demands on support and welfare in the UK evidence a “universal (dis)safety net” where in principle, protections exist on paper but are increasingly conditional, punitive or threadbare in practice, especially for those already experiencing marginalisation.
Five apparent evils facing young people and communities today
For many young people and communities, the five giants have returned (were always there) as five interlocking “apparent evils” shaping everyday life and future life chances. These can be framed in accessible language while staying true to Beveridge’s structure.
• Economic precarity (Want re‑imagined): Young people face a future of high living costs, low wages, student debt and fragmented welfare, leaving many in work poverty, food insecurity or dependent on family support that is itself fragile.
• Health and mental distress (Disease renewed): Pressures on health services, long waiting lists and widening health inequalities combine with rising mental ill‑health, loneliness and anxiety, particularly post‑pandemic.
• Education gaps and digital exclusion (Ignorance recast): Access to high‑quality formal education through effective schooling, further and higher education and lifelong learning remains uneven with an ongoing lack of value in informal education and non-formal education, with digital exclusion on the rise and cuts to informal and community education deepening inequality.
• Housing crisis and unsafe environments (Squalor updated): Young people; indeed communities that face insecure renting, overcrowding, temporary accommodation or staying in unsafe homes, alongside deteriorating public spaces and services.
• Insecure work and enforced inactivity (Idleness transformed): Zero‑hours contracts, gig work, unpaid placements and barriers to employment make it hard for young people to plan their futures, while others are locked out of work or education by caring responsibilities, disability or structural discrimination.
By framing these conditions as “apparent evils” establishes that they are not inevitable or natural; they arise from policy and power, and therefore can be challenged and changed. Connecting young people’s stories to their communities and Beveridge’s analysis invites community audiences to see themselves not only as subjects of policy but as agents who can critique, organise and re‑imagine welfare and democracy.
Why 'The Man With The Plan' is such a valuable opportunity
The Man With The Plan follows a young person, Flea, who discovers Beveridge’s 1942 report and encounters the five giants: Want, Disease, Squalor, Idleness and Ignorance. The film uses Beveridge’s own lyrical language and documented speeches verbatim, blending them with modern voices.
Simon Callow’s portrayal of Beveridge centres the film, while Flea’s journey through “Alice in Wonderland”‑style encounters with devils, giants and media “sheep” makes complex policy issues accessible, especially for younger audiences. The film deliberately positions itself as both art and campaign, ending with a hopeful call for collective action and inviting viewers to imagine how the welfare state could be renewed rather than dismantled.
Learning from history with young people and communities
A screening of the film, offers a concrete way to show that today’s crises are neither unprecedented nor insoluble: previous generations also faced systemic Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness and chose to build institutions to confront them. The film’s intercutting of Beveridge’s era with present‑day voices allows learners to test historical claims against current evidence, and to ask where the post‑war settlement delivered, where it failed, and who was left out from the start.
For youth and community settings
This is an opportunity to explore questions like: Who gets to write “the plan” now? How do race, gender, disability, migration status and class shape how the five giants are experienced? What new “giants” might need naming today, such as surveillance, environmental breakdown or algorithm based decisions? Informed by these discussions, young people can begin to sketch their own “reports”, manifestos or creative responses that speak from lived experience. What a way to develop youth centred and youth led discussion to action and curriculum.
Using screenings in universities
In universities, The Man With The Plan can sit across social policy, social work, youth and community work, history, politics, education, public health, sociology and film studies programmes. Because the script is based on documented texts and speeches, it doubles as a primary source for critical discourse analysis alongside more traditional readings of the Beveridge Report and contemporary welfare critiques.
Possible uses include:
• Module Content: Use the film in a social policy or youth work module to introduce the welfare state, then revisit its themes through lectures, seminars and assessments over the term.
• Critical seminars: Pair scenes on each “giant” with current data on poverty, housing, health inequalities, education outcomes or labour markets; ask students to interrogate where Beveridge’s plan aligns with or diverges from modern evidence.
• Professional formation: For students on practice‑based degrees (youth work, social work, community education, nursing), use the film as a reflective tool on ethics, values and the tension between care, control and conditionality in contemporary services.
A screening can also be embedded in civic engagement work; hosted jointly by departments, student unions, widening participation teams and local organisations to position the university as a space where policy is debated with, not just about, communities.
Using screenings in colleges and schools
Further education colleges and schools can use the film to animate GCSE/A‑Level and vocational curricula, particularly in citizenship, history, PSHE, sociology, health and social care, and politics. The narrative of a young protagonist discovering Beveridge makes it valuable for learners to see themselves as the liberated when it comes to questioning policy, not just memorising it for exams.
Practical approaches include:
• Thematic workshops: Break the film into segments around each giant, followed by short activities where students map local examples of “Want” or “Squalor” in their area and discuss possible responses.
• Creative assessment: Invite learners to create zines, spoken‑word pieces, mini‑films or social media campaigns representing a “sixth giant” they see affecting young people today.
• Career and civic pathways: Link discussions to routes into youth work, social care, health, community organising and public policy, showing how young people can turn concern into a vocation or activism.
A screening could become a cornerstone of a wider “social justice week” or cross‑curricular project rather than a one‑off enrichment activity.
Opportunities for youth and community work providers
Youth and community work organisations can use The Man With The Plan to blend political education with arts‑based practice and collective action. Because the film incorporates real activists and campaigners and notes collective action, it explicitly models the move from analysis to organising.
Ideas for practice include:
• Participatory screenings: Host an evening screening followed by a facilitated conversation in which young people identify the “giants” in their own lives, then collectively choose one focus for local action.
• Co‑produced campaigns: Use themes from the film to support youth‑led campaigns on housing rights, mental health provision, youth services, or income support, linking them to national networks and research.
• Intergenerational work: Bring together older residents who experienced the early welfare state with young people navigating today’s systems, using the film as a prompt for oral histories and mutual learning.
Because the film is imaginative and, it sits well alongside theatre, music, visual arts and digital storytelling, allowing youth workers to play to their strengths in informal, experiential education.
Designing powerful post‑screening activities
To move from “watching” to “working with” the film, informal educators can plan structured follow‑ups that speak to their particular context and young people/community. Some core building blocks:
• Critical reflection circles: Small‑group dialogues using questions like “Which giant felt most real to you?”, “Who in the film had power?”, “What would a plan for our community look like?”
• Local mapping: Invite participants to map local services, spaces and struggles that relate to each giant, noting gaps, strengths and contradictions.
• Policy literacy: Use excerpts from the original Beveridge Report and contemporary policy documents to practise reading official texts critically, comparing promises with lived realities.
• Action planning: Support groups to design next steps, from awareness‑raising events to meetings with local councillors or college/university leadership.
These activities not only deepen understanding of history and policy but also build confidence, collective identity and concrete skills in research, communication and organisation.
Practical steps to organise a screening
The film can be screened for you by Townsend Theatre Productions and you can find their website in The Youth Work Common Room 'Friends and Partners' page and contact them for the detail around how to create the potential of change and value of edutainment in entertainment and establishing social and political thought.
#YWCR #TownsendTheatreProductions #TheManWithThePlan #InformalEducation #Edutainment #TheYouthWorkCommonRoom #Arts #Politics #SocialPolicy #WeAreEducators
Steve Walker (2026)