The Impact of Poverty on Households, Homelessness and Health
Lord Victor Adebowale, Sara Davies, Julie Rugg, Sam Thomas and Claire Ainsley (Chair)

• Friday 15 June 2018, 3.00PM to 4.30pm
• Free admission
  Booking required
  Book tickets
• Ron Cooke Hub, University of York (map|getting to campus)
• Wheelchair accessible

Event details

What are the big ideas for solving homelessness?

Lord Victor Adebowale, Chief Executive of the social enterprise Turning Point, presents the keynote speech on the impact and consequences of homelessness. Our expert panel, including Sam Thomas of the Health Foundation, Sara Davies of the University of Bristol and Julie Rugg of the University of York, then discuss the big ideas for solving homelessness.

The session is chaired by Claire Ainsley of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

About the speakers

Victor Adebowale is the CEO of Turning Point, a social enterprise providing health and social care interventions to approximately 77,000 people on an annual basis. Victor sits as a Non-Executive Director on the boards of NHS England, the Co-Operative Group, Collaborate CIC, IOCOM and Leadership In Mind.. He is also the Chair of Social Enterprise UK. Victor has chaired a number of commission reports into; policing, employment, mental health, housing and fairness for The London Fairness Commission, the Met Police  and for central and local government. He was awarded CBE for services to the unemployed and homeless people, and became a crossbench peer in 2001.

Victor is a visiting Professor and Chancellor at the University of Lincoln; an honorary member of the Institute of Psychiatry; President of The International Association of Philosophy and Psychiatry; and a  Governor at The London School of Economics. Victor has an MA in Advanced Organisational Consulting from Tavistock Institute and City University. 

Claire Ainsley is JRF Executive Director with strategic oversight of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)'s policy and research, analysis and communications. She is responsible for driving forward JRF’s strategy to inspire action to solve UK poverty. Claire joined JRF in November 2013 as Director of Communications and External Affairs. She was appointed JRF Executive Director in December 2017. She leads work on understanding the social and political attitudes of people in poverty, and chaired the task group of JRF’s strategy to solve UK poverty.

Prior to joining JRF, Claire worked in public affairs and communications in the public and voluntary sectors, and for the UK's largest trade union. She has a BA in Politics from the University of York and an MSc in Global Politics from the University of London. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Political Studies Association and part of their Communications and Engagement Advisory Group. She is also a member of the advisory board of the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life. Her book The New Working Class: how to win hearts, minds and votes was published in May 2018 by Policy Press.

Sara Davies is a Research Fellow at the Personal Finance Research Centre at the University of Bristol.  The centre specialises in social research across all areas of personal finance, including financial exclusion, over indebtedness and vulnerability, mainly from the consumer’s perspective. Her recent work has focussed on the Poverty Premium; Firstly, in calculating the current poverty premium to reflect markets and household behaviour as they exist today, and secondly, in constructively examining the problems in each sector and considering how market forces, policy and regulation could work more effectively to support households in poverty.

Dr Julie Rugg is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Housing Policy. Her areas of special expertise include the private rented sector, local housing allowance and housing biographies. Julie has for some years been involved in policy development around use of the private rented sector to meet housing need. Over the last few years she has completed a longitudinal qualitative project assessing the impact of welfare changes on g15 tenants in London, and has published research on the cost of temporary accommodation to London local authorities. Funded by the Nationwide Foundation and together with colleague David Rhodes, Julie is completing a broad ranging overview of the operation of the private rented sector. The final report will be launched in September 2018.

Sam Thomas recently joined the Health Foundation, an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and healthcare for people across the UK, as Programme Manager. Until April 2018 he was Policy Manager for the Making Every Adult Matter coalition, formed of the national charities Clinks, Homeless Link and Mind. He led a programme of work to improve policy affecting people facing multiple disadvantages including homelessness, mental ill health, drug and alcohol misuse and contact with the criminal justice system. Sam has also worked at DrugScope, the RSA and the University of Leeds, and is a graduate of the University of York.

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