Leading delegates from across the north of England are set to descend on Blackpool to discuss fairness around the UK.
It comes during the first ever Fairness Conference which will take place on Tuesday 25 February.
Over 250 representatives will take to the resort’s Tower Ballroom to discuss local and national policies, as well as initiatives that can help to reduce social inequality.
The conference is being hosted by Blackpool Fairness Commission in partnership with Public Health England, and aims to bring leading partners together to discuss plans to improve equality across the United Kingdom.
The keynote speakers on the day will be:
- Professor Richard Wilkinson from the Equality Trust.
- Cllr Simon Blackburn, Leader of Blackpool Council.
- Professor Paul Johnstone, Regional Director North, Public Health England.
- Cllr James Alexander, Leader of York Council.
- Tracey Robbins, Director, Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
In addition to the key speakers, leading politicians and fairness champions from throughout the public, private, voluntary and faith sectors will attend the event to air their opinions and explore possible solutions to the equality gap.
Dr Arif Rajpura, Chair of Blackpool Fairness Commission, said: “There is a lot of good work going on in local areas across the country.
“But the epidemic of social unfairness is one that we all suffer. The scale of the problem particularly in the north of the country is large and we need to put our heads together and come up with a big plan to tackle it.
“Bringing some of the biggest players in the north of England together to discuss the problems that we all have and the help that we need both locally and nationally will be a good start to fixing these problems.”
Professor Paul Johnstone, Regional Director for PHE in the North of England, said: “We know there is a clear north south divide in the health of the population in England, with the north significantly worse off. Direct action is needed at both national and local levels. We need a joined up approach, across areas and nationally, to look at how by working together we can tackle health inequalities so we start to see significant change to the health and wider wellbeing of the people of the North of England.
“PHE in the north will be supporting and looking at ways we can establish a collaboration with our key partners to address these issues together and sharing good practice.
The day will include special talks from the aforementioned speakers, as well as a question and answer session and interactive workshops to discuss social inequality.
People will be able to follow the day on Twitter, using the hashtag #fairness14.
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