Only 2 weeks away!! The largest multi-disciplinary public health conference in the UK! Reflecting the character of both the Forum and the UKPHA our keynote speakers range across all of the areas of fundamental importance to public health; health inequalities; environment and climate change; housing and transport systems; commissioning for change.

As ever our over-riding theme is to consider how we reduce health inequalities and this year we will be focusing upon how the public health community can exert real influence on the housing and neighbourhood conditions and dynamics which impact so profoundly on individual and community health.

Keynote speakers

Rt Hon Dawn Primarolo MP was appointed Minister of State for Public Health at the Department of Health in July 2007. In this role, she has responsibility for health improvement and health protection issues including such areas as tobacco, obesity, drugs and sexual health, as well as international business, pharmacy and research and development.

Prior to her appointment at the Department of Health, Dawn spent ten years at the Treasury; first as Financial Secretary (1997-1999) and subsequently as Paymaster General, responsible for oversight of taxation as a whole. Prior to 1997, Dawn held two posts in Opposition, as front bench spokesperson on health (1992-1994) and Treasury and economic affairs (1994-1997).

The Rt Hon. Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, Minister of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change will be leading this final plenary. As a founder member of UKPHA and also the prime mover behind the first Annual Public Health Forum Lord Hunt has always been committed to championing the fundamental importance of the social determinants of health and the social justice.

Dr Valerie Day is a public health consultant with nearly twenty-five years experience in public health at local, regional, national and international level. She recently retired from the Department of Health in England where she was Director of Commissioning and Public Health, focusing on the capacity and capability to improve population health through effective commissioning of health improvement and health care services. Valerie is now an independant Public Health Consultant.

Plenary 3- Design, Deprivation and Destiny - What will it take to create healthy sustainable neighbourhoods??

Speakers Wayne Hemingway, Lynsey Hanley and Stephen Watkins have been identified and selected by the UKPHA Special Interest Groups and Strategic Interest Groups for their ability to range across all of the dimensions of healthy sustainable communities and to pose real challenges to the way that the public health professionals think and operate.

Wayne Hemingway is an embodiment of the cross-cutting approach and systems thinking that is essential to the public health of the future. Wayne founded the fashion label Red or Dead and has expanded his gifts for design into the development of healthy sustainable neighbourhoods. Wayne is the Chairman of Building for Life, a CABE (Commission for Architecture and The Built Environment) funded organization that promotes the quality of design of new housing, a Professor in the Built Environment department of Northumbria University, a Doctor of Design at Wolverhampton, and a writer for architectural and housing publications. Wayne also sits on the Government's Eco Towns Challenge Panel

Lynsey Hanley, the Guardian columnist and author of the book Estates: An Intimate History grew up on a large Council estate in Birmingham. Lynsey describes the " wall in the head", that she and anyone who comes from her kind of background feels they have, i.e. a sense of exclusion from the wider world and its freedoms.

Both Wayne and Lynsey see health and well-being as the product of equitable social economic environmental and economic conditions and we fully expect that their plenary presentations will be provocative and challenging.

What's more delegates will be able to fully participate in responding to these challenges as for the first time there will be dedicated workshops looking at all aspects of healthy sustainable neighbourhoods immediately following the plenary session. Click here for the post plenary workshops.

World Class commissioning could and should offer real opportunities for setting up contracts which are genuinely based on partnership between PCTs and Local Authorities, specifically 'buying-in' work aimed at building healthy sustainable communities. Dr Val Day be speaking about this on the first day of the Forum and there will be many workshops focused on this critically important issue

But of course the UKPHA Forum has always been as much about innovation and creativity as it is about pondering public health challenges and their solutions!

Not only will there be workshops and oral and poster presentations on the contribution that the Arts can make to public health but also live performances and installations that will be both entertaining and educational.

What's more in line with our policy of practicing what we preach there will be a whole fleet of bikes for delegates to trial - Brompton folding bikes included!! And if you are feeling a little anxious about getting back into the saddle you will have the help and guidance of our bicycle buddy Pam Ashton to get you on your way.

For full plenary details, please click here.

UKPHA make a return to Brighton

It is great to hear the UKPHA are returning to Brighton and Hove. I attended the first conference of the newly formed UKPHA - I'm proud to say in Brighton, and have been to several since. I am always impressed by the enthusiasm, energy and diversity of delegates. Brighton is the right place. A World Health Organisation Healthy City since 2004, Brighton is a colourful, vibrant mix of arts, culture, history, nightlife and general wellbeing. I hope you can make use of some of the healthy offers on hand; walks, bikes, tours and that you get to see more of the city than the inside of the conference centre offers. I will be giving a short talk on our Healthy City on Tuesday's members evening and afterwards there will be a guided walk around some of the city. Join us in Brighton - Book Now!

Dr. Tom Scanlon, Director of Public Health, NHS Brighton and Hove, Brighton & Hove City Council