Accessibility statement

You're viewing an archived page from a previous Festival of Ideas. See this year's festival »

What has the North ever done for social policy - then and now?
Speakers: Steven Burkeman and Julia Unwin

The Rowntree Society
  • Thursday 20 June 2013, 6.30PM
  • Free admission
    Booking required, see below for tickets
  • Berrick Saul Building, University of York (See locations page)

Event details

The famous York-born social reformer, Seebohm Rowntree, was an early contributor to social policy in the North of England. Important contemporary contributions are still being made to the development of social policy through the work of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Find out more about the role of the North in social policy.

Speaker biography

For 19 years, until 2001, Steven Burkeman was the Trust Secretary of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Before then, he worked as a teacher; in the non-profit sector; in local government; and as a consumer advocate in the National Health Service. From 2001 to 2011, he worked as an independent consultant, mainly with grant making trusts and human rights NGOs. Steven has written and lectured widely in the UK and internationally on issues relating to philanthropy. He has served on various boards, including the Community Fund (now part of the Big Lottery Fund), and the board for the Legal Complaints Service. He founded & is a trustee of the Rowntree Society, which seeks to ensure that a new generation understands the contemporary significance of the work and ideas of the Rowntree family. He is vice chair of Jessie's Fund, a small York-based charity working nationally to help children who are ill or disabled to communicate through music, and sits on the Economics, Law, Management, Politics, Sociology (ELMPS) ethics committee of the University of York.

Julia Unwin is Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust.

She was a member of the Housing Corporation Board for 10 years and a Charity Commissioner from 1998-2003. Julia was also Deputy Chair of the Food Standards Agency and worked as an independent consultant operating within government and the voluntary and corporate sectors. In that role, she focused on the development of services and in particular the governance and funding of voluntary organisations. Julia has researched and written extensively on the role, governance and funding of the voluntary sector. Follow Julia on twitter @juliaunwin

Websites: www.jrf.org.uk and www.rowntreesociety.org.uk

Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Tickets

Festival tweets