Carol Brayne is Professor of Public Health Medicine in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge. She is a medically qualified epidemiologist and public health academic. She graduated in medicine from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, University of London, and went on to train in general medicine. After gaining membership, Carol moved on to training in epidemiology with a training fellowship with the Medical Research Council. The research area for this fellowship was ageing and dementia.

Since the mid-Eighties, Carol's main research area has been longitudinal studies of older people following changes over time in cognition, dementia natural history and associated features with a public health perspective. She is lead principal investigator in the group of MRC CFA Studies, which has informed and will continue to inform national policy and scientific understanding of dementia in whole populations. Carol has been responsible for training programmes in epidemiology and public health for undergraduates and postgraduates since the early Nineties, and is Director of the Institute of Public Health at the University of Cambridge.


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Tim Baxter studied Classics at university before joining the Department of Health in 1991. Since then he has worked in posts spanning much of the department's business. He ran a judicial inquiry into a high security hospital; was in charge of implementing the white paper Smoking Kills; led for the department the pilot project to refer NHS patients to mainland Europe; and has also worked in different corporate roles.
Recently, Tim was Acting Director of Strategy at University Hospital Lewisham and then acted as secretary to the review of the 2009 pandemic influenza outbreak, based at the Cabinet Office. Since July 2010, he has worked on the design of the new public health system, and is currently Head of the Public Health Policy and Strategy Unit in the department.

Presentation: Public health: The current landscape and the road ahead

Britain is the most obese nation in Europe, with high levels of substance abuse, smoking fatalities and sexually transmitted diseases, the rates of which are all much higher in socially and economically disadvantaged populations. This keynote address will broach how the new public health system will tackle these issues both directly through clinical intervention and education, and through legislation and social reform. What are the main challenges facing the new public health system and how can they be tackled?

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Duncan Selbie has worked in the NHS since 1980. He formally commenced as Chief Executive of Public Health England on 1st July 2012.

From 2007 to 2012 he was Chief Executive at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals. From 2003 to 2007 at the Department of Health, he was the Director General of Programmes and Performance for the NHS and then subsequently Commissioning.

Prior to this, Duncan held chief executive roles at the South East London Strategic Health Authority and the South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust. He recently served on the NHS Future Forum and contributed specifically to the Education and Training Working Group.

Duncan places a great emphasis on frontline leadership by all professionals across the health and social care spectrum.


Presentation: Managing the transition

With the transfer of public health powers to local authorities and the establishment of the executive agency Public Health England both set to reach completion in a few months' time, this talk will look at the practical implications of these policy changes: How will they affect the way that staff within the NHS and local government work? Whose roles will be changing and where will they be moving to? How do we successfully train new bodies to assume public health powers?
This extensive transition has the ability to facilitate integrated, collaborative public health programmes, to improve public health from a wider perspective than strictly clinical interventions, but how do we manage these changes successfully?

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Lindsey Davies is President of the UK Faculty of Public Health. After qualifying in medicine at Nottingham University, Lindsey worked in community paediatrics before training in public health. She subsequently became Director of Public Health for Southern Derbyshire and, later, for Nottingham before moving to the Department of Health's NHS Executive as Head of Public Health.

Lindsey became Regional Director of Public Health/Regional Medical Director for the Trent region (later the East Midlands region) in 1995 and remained in that post until 2006 when she moved to the Department of Health in London as the National Director of Pandemic Influenza Preparedness, leading the UK's preparations for a flu pandemic. In early 2010, she spent six months as the interim RDPH for London and the Health Advisor to the Mayor of London.

She holds a Special Professorship in Public Health Medicine and Epidemiology at Nottingham University.


Presentation: Targeting resources to needs: Collating information and developing strategic interventions to tackle health inequalities

Given that the health needs of the public vary across the nation, this talk will look at how we can develop strategic interventions that successfully gauge the needs of a given demographic through research and informatics, translating this into targeted screening programmes and behavioural interventions that are truly tailored to the needs of local communities: a crucial component of the drive to tackle health inequalities.

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Steve Price became the Chief Executive of Mytime Active after a successful career in recreation management with various metropolitan and unitary authorities. As Chief Recreation Officer for Bromley Borough Council he led their successful investment programme in sport, and subsequently set up the Mytime Active trust in 2004. Steve leads on all strategic and management issues for Mytime Active with an annual turnover of over £33m and a staff of over 1200.
Steve has led and inspired Mytime Active to develop a community focused health division (Mytime Health) and has been instrumental in the recent growth. Steve and his health team deliver programmes and services which tackle health inequalities: the wider determinants of health, and lifestyle factors both from a prevention and rehabilitation perspective. All of which is underpinned by the fundamentals of understanding the complexities of changing behaviour.
Steve, until recently was also a National Skills Academy Board Member and Chair of the London Region. He worked to develop employment and skills opportunities, and advocate better health for everyone in support of the 2012 legacy.


Presentation: Delivering the ambition of a new model of public health provider provision

There has been extensive debate and commentary focused on the new structures and systems designed to provide leadership, oversight and commissioning of public health – but what about the opportunities for providers? Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS aimed to produce the 'largest social enterprise sector in the world' with new types of providers with a social purpose responding to the needs of the local population and reinvesting surpluses to add community value. Sharing the experience of a Social Enterprise (with roots in a Local Authority), this talk will discuss progress against this vision in the context of public health and wellbeing and explore whether current procurement and contracting arrangements adequately recognise the value of re-investment in the community.

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Deborah Evans is Director of Pharmacy at the National Pharmacy Association and National Project Lead for the Healthy Living Pharmacy pathfinder programme. She was responsible for leading the development and implementation of the highly acclaimed Healthy Living Pharmacy programme in Portsmouth and has trained a large number of pharmacy team members to be Healthy Living Champions and leaders. She runs balance, a consultancy dedicated to engaging, inspiring and enabling community pharmacists, pharmaceutical sales and marketing teams and NHS commissioners for the benefit of patients; developing skills and services within community pharmacy. Deborah feels it is important to keep her pharmacy knowledge up to date and feet firmly planted in the real world, so still works regularly in community pharmacy within a GP practice.

Presentation: The role of the pharmacy in improving community health and wellbeing

Community pharmacies play a crucial role in helping reduce health inequalities by delivering high-quality health and wellbeing services, promoting health and providing proactive health advice and interventions. In recognition of this, The Healthy Living Pharmacy programme is being undertaken in numerous areas across the country as part of a pathfinder programme supported by the pharmacy organisations and Department of Health.

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Shahrad Taheri is Senior Lecturer in medicine, diabetes and endocrinology at the University of Birmingham. He is also a consultant physician at the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust where he is lead for weight management. He also has a lead role within the Birmingham and Black Country NIHR CLAHRC (implementation of effective community care for diabetes).
Shahrad qualified in medicine from Barts, London University. He trained in diabetes and endocrinology at Barts, the Hammersmith hospital, and Bristol Royal Infirmary. He obtained his PhD as a Wellcome Trust research fellow in neuroendocrinology at Imperial College, London, where his research focused on the hypothalamic function. This was followed by postdoctoral research at Stanford University. He returned to the UK in 2003 as Lecturer at Bristol University.
Shahrad is passionate about care of patients with obesity and diabetes. He has had several national and international awards for his research and is a reviewer for several journals and funding bodies. His research ranges from basic laboratory to population research and service delivery reorganisation.

Presentation: Beating obesity, keeping fit

An NHS report published earlier this year revealed that obesity amongst British people is on the rise, with one in five children reaching obesity by the end of primary school. The West Midlands in particular has the one of the highest levels of obesity in the UK at 29% (double the EU average). To tackle this, The Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust has set up the largest obesity and diabetes service in the UK, operating at the centre of a 'hub and spoke' model of service delivery that reaches out into the community with a Weight Management Centre, a multidisciplinary, team-based centre at the forefront of weight management treatments and technologies.

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Kevin Mullins has over 30 years' experience working within the NHS and across health and social care. This has included general management and executive director capacities in specialist and general acute hospitals, community health services and mental health.

Kevin has also worked extensively as a health and social care commissioner executive director within a number of PCTs and as programme director at regional and national levels. This has included healthcare commissioning lead for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics Games and his current role as Director of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies at the DH.



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Parul Desai is Director of Population Health at the Health and Social Care Information Centre, advising on the data requirements for population health information and intelligence and leading on engagement with Public Health England and local public health practice. She has trained in epidemiology, public health and ophthalmology, and is on secondment from Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, where she is a consultant in Ophthalmology and Public Health.


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Darren Woodward is the Director of Operations within the Substance Misuse directorate of Turning Point. He has 20 years experience of working with people with drug or alcohol problems, the homeless and people with mental health issues. He has spent over a decade with Turning Point and has a masters and post-gradual diploma in psychotherapy. Darren has much experience of implementing and managing integrated substance misuse services and leading on clinical governance in the transfer of social care and health responsibilities from the statutory sector to the third sector.


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The National Housing Federation is the trade body for housing associations in England. It exists to support and promote the work that housing associations do and campaign for better housing and neighbourhoods.

Jake Eliot leads the Federation's policy work on health, social care and support for vulnerable and older people. Prior to joining the Federation, Jake was a consultant in strategy and impact at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. He has worked as a researcher in the House of Lords and for an educational social enterprise and has several years' experience of working in the voluntary sector in different policy and project management roles. He is also the vice-chair of a voluntary arts and culture agency for London.


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James Magowan was seconded to Tomorrow's People in 2010 to support the development of the charity's five year strategy and business plan and to build stronger relationships with local authorities. He joined the charity permanently in early 2012.

James' role at the charity also involves the running of its research and innovation unit, Praxis. The unit acts as an incubator for new approaches to tackle unemployment, with the aim of being more than desk-based ideas. The work of Praxis seeks to identify the next generation of welfare to work activities by fusing ideas with practical implementation.


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