About State of Health and Care Conference 2022

Our health is in crisis. 20th century improvements in UK population health are reversing; UK health is lagging behind other advanced countries; and the NHS faces the toughest winter in its history.

At the same time, the economy faces big, fundamental and long-term weaknesses. The labour market is struggling; productivity has failed to recover from the financial crash; and we are experiencing a chronic lack of growth.

It is these twin challenges that have inspired IPPR to launch the Commission on Health and Prosperity - chaired by Dame Sally Davies and Lord Ara Darzi. Our formative hypothesis is that a fairer country is a healthier one, and a healthier country is a more prosperous one. Put another way, better health is the medicine our economy desperately needs.

12.30 - 1.00	Attendee arrival. Light refreshments available.
1.00 - 1.10	Welcome: Chris Thomas, Head of the Commission on Health and Prosperity, IPPR
1.10 - 1.30	Keynote speech: Lord Ara Darzi, Former Health Minister and Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery at Imperial College London
1.30 - 2.30	Panel discussion: Is health good for business? Health is vital to prosperity – from productivity, to a flourishing labour market, to fair opportunity for all. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated awareness of this link among British business, who are increasingly calling for stronger health policy. This panel will explore why businesses think good health is important; what initiatives they’re taking forward; and what they want from government health policy. John Godfrey, Director of Levelling Up at Legal and General, and former Head of Policy for Prime Minister Theresa May Jordan Cummins, Health Director, CBI Sian Elliott, Senior Policy Lead for Public Services, TUC Rachel Statham, Associate Director for Work and the Welfare State, IPPR Ben Richardson, Managing Partner, Carnall Farrar Chair: Georgia Banjo, Britain Correspondent, The Economist
2.30 - 2.45	Networking tea and coffee break
2.45 - 3.15	Keynote speech: Wes Streeting MP,Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
3.15 - 4.15	Panel discussion: Are flourishing NHS and social care services still possible? Health and care are facing historic crises. This had led some to suggest the NHS’ founding principles are fundamentally broken – and that we must accept a move to a social insurance system, to a more market-based system, or to a more fundamentally unfair two-tier system. Yet demonstrably – whether looking to the 2000s, or other countries - universal health can work and support prosperity. This panel will ask what next for services, with a focus on revitalising universalism in the interest of health and prosperity. Dr Penny Dash, Chair, North West London Integrated Care System Sarah Sweeney, Interim Chief Executive, National Voices Fazilet Hadi, Head of Policy, Disability Rights UK Natalie Creary, Programme Delivery Director, Black Thrive Lambeth Miriam Levin, Programme Director, Engage Britain Chair: Parth Patel, Senior Research Fellow, IPPR
4.15 - 4.35	Networking tea and coffee break
4.35 - 5.30	Panel discussion: Health inequality and the economy Increasingly, evidence shows that health inequality is bad for prosperity. This panel will discuss the strength of this link – and what can be done to make good health a stronger feature of economic policy and ‘common-sense’. Lord Bethell, former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care Sarah O’Connor, Columnist, Reporter and Associate Editor, the Financial Times Samuel Kasumu, former Special Advisor to Boris Johnson Dr Jessica Allen, Deputy Director, UCL Institute of Health Equity Chair: Rachel Statham, Associate Director for Work and the Welfare State, IPPR
5.30 - 5.50	Keynote speech: Helen Whately MP, Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care
5.50 - 6.00	Closing remarks: Chris Thomas, Head of the Commission on Health and Prosperity, IPPR
6.00 - 7.00	Networking reception

You can find more about the IPPR Commission on Health and Prosperity here.