Events

Getting Personal

A one-day conference on the role of personal advisers in welfare and related services

New Connaught Rooms, 61–65 Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5DA

Book online here.

This important conference will explore a new model of public service professional: the personal adviser. It will review the changing role of frontline  staff – personal advisers and intermediaries from the public, private and voluntary sector – in welfare-to-work and related services.

Welfare reform is currently top of the Government’s agenda. The recently published Green Paper No-one Written Off sets out a vision for services in which the customer is central and increasingly in control. Personal, active support is vital to help more people, particularly those with additional needs, into sustainable employment, and delivery of this vision is dependent on the front-line workforce. It is therefore crucial that staff and delivery agencies are sufficiently supported and skilled to respond to these changes.

The conference will offer a mixture of speeches, panel debates and participatory sessions to share policy and best practice. It will ask what role, skills, pay and powers personal advisers need in order to deliver personal, effective services and sustainable outcomes.

This event forms part of ippr's social policy project: Now It's Personal: Personal Advisers - a new public service workforce.

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Red and Green Taxes Launch

Central London.

The regressive nature of the UK tax system – it takes more, as a proportion of income, from the poorest families in the UK than from the richest – undermines its ability to help create a fairer society.  At the same time, there is widespread agreement that the government’s environmental tax record falls short of what is required to achieve its ambitious targets for cutting carbon emissions. This raises fundamental questions about the ability of the UK tax system to play its part in achieving both social justice and environmental sustainability.

ippr’s new project, Red and Green Taxes, is taking a fresh look at the tax system to understand how we can create a system which is more progressive and at the same time more green. As part of this project, we will be constructing a sophisticated new tax-benefit model to help us develop robust recommendations for creating a fairer and greener tax system. At this event, we will formally launch this new project.

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Does class matter anymore?

1:00pm-2:30pm
30- 32 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7RA

Professor Mike Savage, University of Manchester.

In recent years, class has become increasingly seen as irrelevant to key social faultlines, while policy debates have been dominated by a concept of social exclusion based on deprived minorities on the one hand and a large mainstream on the other. In academic debates, influential theorists such as Ulrich Beck, Zygmunt Bauman and Anthony Giddens argue that class is increasingly less salient in our daily routines, beliefs and practices. Beck famously coined the phrase that class is a ‘zombie category’, one which has ceased to perform useful work for sociology. So does class matter anymore, for culture or for politics? Drawing on new research, Professor Mike Savage challenges the current orthodoxy, arguing that class does, in fact, matter for our social and cultural identities.

Places at this event are limited. To reserve a place please email events@ippr.org.

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Future flows between the UK and Poland: what next for a flourishing exchange?

6.30pm - 8.30pm

Panel discussion and reception at the Polish embassy.

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Promoting the Integration of Vulnerable Migrant Groups

Irregular migrants, transient labour migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees

ippr, 30 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7RA

In recent years, there has been considerable interest in migrant integration and social cohesion. Concerns have focussed on the scale of recent immigration, its impacts on social cohesion, and apparently ‘inassimilable’ migrant and minority ethnic communities. Migrant integration and social cohesion have been accorded high priority across all parts and levels of Government. Policy initiatives have been accompanied by a growing body of research literature that provides new insights into immigrant integration and social cohesion. Yet there still remains a pressing need to ensure that research on migrant integration is used to inform policymaking.

Promoting the Integration of Vulnerable Migrant Groups is the third in a seminar series supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and draws on the findings of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Immigration and Inclusion Programme.

There are several groups who risk being sidelined in efforts to promote integration and social cohesion, and especially in efforts to promote ‘Britishness’. These groups can include refugees and asylum-seekers, transient labour migrants, and irregular migrants. This roundtable will look at how each group relates to wider public policy objectives around integration. It will ask, for example, whether refugee integration strategies achieve their objectives and how local authorities can respond to the challenges of population mobility and irregular migration. 

This seminar will focus on irregular migrants, transient labour migrants and asylum-seekers and refugees. Participants will receive copies of new ippr research on the integration of Bangladeshi, Iranian, Nigerian and Somali migrants.

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The Sub-Prime Solution

12:30pm-2:00 pm
30- 32 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7RA

Professor Robert Shiller, Yale University with John McFall MP, Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, and Chris Giles, Economics Editor, Financial Times.

The roots of the current global financial crisis lie in the US sub-prime mortgage market, and the trillions of dollars worth of unsustainable loans that were made under the veil of securitisation. To provide a unique and insight into how the bubble burst and what should now be done, ippr is delighted to be joined by perhaps the most eminent and considered examiner of modern investment bubbles, Professor Robert Shiller of Yale Unversity. Prof Shiller accurately predicted that the crisis would be much more acute and on a larger scale than many thought, and anticipated the bailouts on both sides of the Atlantic. He will be talking about his new book, Sub-Prime Solution, which offers a solution to the crisis, radically different from much current thinking. We will also be joined by John McFall MP, chair of the Common’s Treasury Select Committee, who will give a view on the implications of Shiller’s proposals, for UK housing and financial markets.

Places at this event are limited. To reserve a place please email events@ippr.org.

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Can Labour win the next election?

1:00pm - 2:30pm
ippr, 30-32 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7RA

Professor John Curtice, University of Strathclyde with Steve Richards, Chief political commentator, The Independent.

After a decade of dominating the political landscape, Labour’s electoral fortunes have hit a turbulent patch. Following a bounce on coming to power in June 2007, Gordon Brown saw his ratings plunge in the wake of speculation about an early election in the autumn. More recently, Labour has hoped that Brown’s handling of the financial crisis will work to the party’s advantage, although this is as yet unclear in the polls. Meanwhile, the Conservatives under David Cameron have established a clear lead. But how firm is this, and how far ahead do the Tories need to be to gain a clear majority at the next election, now widely expected to be in 2010? What are the prospects for a hung Parliament, giving the Liberal Democrats a potentially decisive role? Ippr is delighted that to examine these questions, in the aftermath of the Glenrothes bye-election, we are joined by Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University, and Steve Richards of The Independent (invited).

Places at this event are limited. To reserve a place please email events@ippr.org.

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ippr Dinner/Intellect Christmas Defence

The first in a series of collaborative events between ippr and Intellect's Defence & Security programme. This launch event, a dinner on the 2nd of December offers the opportunity to examine the industry's work in the context of a changing global security environment including the challenges posed by climate change, globalisation and our increasing reliance on infrastructure.

It will be a relaxed industry event and networking opportunity where guests will have the opportunity to hear from a reputable figure speaking about national security.

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Capitalism in Crisis?

5.30pm - 8.30pm
Central London

Our financial markets are experiencing a period of extraordinary turmoil: lax lending practices in the US have led to a global credit crunch, resulting in the collapse of banks, plummeting stock markets, and a range of unprecedented bail-outs and rescue plans from governments around the world.

With an audience of economists, business leaders, politicians, policymakers and commentators, the debate will seek to explore and understand the implications of the current financial crisis and ask what needs to happen to ensure that it does not happen again, as well as address the wider consequences for capitalism.

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A Green New Deal

1:00pm - 2:30pm 
ippr, 30-32 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7RA

In the summer of 2008, a proposal for a Green New Deal was put forward by a group of economists, activists, policy analysts and politicians. Their argument is that the global economy is facing a ‘triple crunch’: a combination of a credit-fuelled financial crisis, accelerating climate change and soaring energy prices underpinned by encroaching peak oil.

Drawing inspiration from the tone of President Roosevelt’s comprehensive response to the Great Depression, the group propose a modernised version, a ‘Green New Deal’ designed to power a renewables revolution, create thousands of green-collar jobs and rein in the power of the finance sector while making more low-cost capital available for pressing priorities.

At the time of its launch, the Green New Deal called for reforms far more serious than those being considered by politicians. However, the bank crises and bailouts in September and October have changed the landscape. Elements of the Green New Deal agenda are now being adopted by politicians both in the UK and the US, although debates about how such a Deal will be financed, and what the macro-economic implications are, continue to rage.

ippr is delighted that Caroline Lucas, MEP and Ann Pettifor – two members of the Green New Deal group – will be joining us to present and discuss the proposal.

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Oxford Media Convention 2009

Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

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This one-day conference, organised by ippr in partnership with MediaGuardian, returns for its seventh year. The Oxford Media Convention 2009 will focus on convergence as senior government and industry figures come together and discuss current and forthcoming challenges and opportunities around media policy, strategy and regulation.

Seen by many as the industry-defining event, the Oxford Media Convention provides an important opportunity for senior figures from broadcasting, academia and regulatory bodies to think creatively about the regulatory framework we want to see develop to guarantee the success of our creative and media industries.

Keynote speakers include:

• Ed Richards, CEO, Ofcom
• Richard Allan, chair, Power of Information Task Force
• Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP, secretary of state for culture, media and sport
• Jon Gisby, director of New Media and Technology, Channel 4
• Jeremy Hunt MP, shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport

Full details of speakers and panels can be found in the brochure (subject to change).

Book online now.

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