Anna is Head of Social Policy, leading work on developing a new social settlement to meet the challenges of the 21st century. This aims to promote well-being for all and sustainable social justice. It includes practical work on: moving investment and action upstream to prevent harm; changing the way we use and value time; building a fair, sufficient and sustainable social security system; transforming public services by developing co-production as the standard way of getting things done; and safeguarding the interests of future generations. Her recent publications for nef include The Prevention Papers, The Wisdom of Prevention, The Big Society and the New Austerity and 21 Hours.
A leading analyst, writer and advocate in the field of social policy, Anna was responsible for ground-breaking work on health and sustainable development as Commissioner for Health with the UK Sustainable Development Commission (2000-9). She led the Healthcare Commission’s work on engaging patients and the public (2005-8) and was Director of Health Policy at the King's Fund (1998-2004). Earlier posts include Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director of ippr (Institute for Public Policy Research) from 1989-1998, Editor and Producer of current affairs television for Diverse Productions (1982-6), Deputy Editor of the New Statesman (1978-82). Anna has written widely on social policy, sustainable development, public health policy, public involvement and democratic dialogue, gender and equality.
Blog post // January 8, 2013
Preventing harm: time for action
Most of us agree that harm and waste are best avoided. If we can, we should try to stop people getting ill, injured, robbed or cheated, being thrown out of work or otherwise deprived of the means to live a good life. If we can, we should prevent needless waste of public money and natural resources, stop the build-up of greenhouse gases and narrow the rapidly widening gap between rich and poor. But in fact we do very little. And whatever we do individually is massively outweighed by the inertia of public and private institutions at local, national and global levels.
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Blog post // March 14, 2012
If Iain Duncan Smith really cares about prevention he should focus on economic inequality
Iain Duncan Smith wants to shift more investment upstream to prevent harm before it happens, instead of spending money picking up the pieces after things have gone wrong. An excellent idea. When public resources are increasingly scarce, it becomes all the more urgent to spend wisely and avoid waste. In human terms, no-one would prefer to be ill instead of well, to be homeless rather than housed, to be jobless and poor rather than earning a decent living. More
Blog post // July 14, 2011
Ten Big Questions about the Open Public Services White Paper
Ideology overrides evidence at every turn in this week's Open Public Services White Paper. It promotes competition and individual choice where there’s clear evidence that co-operation and shared responsibility work best. It wants to open up public services to free markets, yet every day brings further proof of market failure. It is trying to turn the welfare state into a supermarket where we can all go shopping for services. More