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Monday 28 April 2025, 5.00pm – 6.45pm
Nissan Institute Lecture Theatre, St Antony’s College
Current Members of Parliament and St Antony’s College Visiting Parliamentary Fellows The Rt Hon John Glen MP and The Right Hon Liam Byrne MP present the next in this insightful seminar series:
The NHS in the age of populism
How do we fix the NHS and its productivity?
In the UK election, one domestic policy issue loomed large above everything else: the NHS. But when finances are tough, NHS improvement will prove a challenge unless we can improve NHS productivity. And despite new investment, the new government must avoid the peril of its last term in office when rising personal satisfaction with the NHS failed to translate into an appreciation that the system was on the mend. This seminar, led by John Glen and Liam Byrne, will go to the heart of one of the biggest domestic policy reforms, and debate where the role of the state should begin and end and where the limitations of the NHS may lie.
Speakers:
Matthew joined the NHS Confederation as its Chief Executive in June 2021, having been Chief Executive of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) for 15 years. During his tenure, Matthew transformed the RSA into a global institution, with 30,000 fellows and a high-profile and influential research programme.
Before the RSA, Matthew was chief adviser on political strategy to Prime Minister Tony Blair and he also ran the Institute for Public Policy Research for 5 years. He is a widely known commentator on policy, politics and public service reform and regularly appears on national media programmes, including as a panellist on BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze. He was series editor for the Thames and Hudson ‘Big Ideas’ books and his own book ‘Do we need to work?’ was published in 2021. He was commissioned by the Conservative government in 2016 to carry out an independent review into modern employment practices.
Matthew presents the podcast series ‘Health on the Line’ for NHS Confederation.
Nicholas Mays is Professor of Health Policy in the Department of Health Services Research and Policy at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine where he has been since 2003.
He recently stood down as director of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Policy Innovation and Evaluation Research Unit (PIRU) which he led from 2010. The Unit specialises in evaluative policy research across the remit of the Department of Health and Social Care in England in health services, social care and public health.
Currently, he is co-leading the national evaluation of the Pharmacy First service in England which began in February 2024 and enables community pharmacists to prescribe antibiotics for seven common ailments. Its goal is to improve patients’ access to first contact primary health care.
As well as spells in the NHS, he was Director of Research at the King’s Fund, 1994-98 and Principal Health Policy Advisor in the New Zealand Treasury, 1998-2003.
He is a Senior Associate of The Nuffield Trust and a member of The General Advisory Council of The King’s Fund.
Nicholas has a background in social policy, public administration and policy analysis.
Nick is currently a shadow Science and Technology Minister and was a Health Minister from 2022-2024 having become the first Lord under King Charles III. As Health Minister, Nick was in charge of everything technology wise in the Health Dept / NHS, including the NHS App (with 33m users), AI and MedTech innovation. The NHS App is transforming the way people interact and manage their own health and had 55m user “sign-ons” in November 2024 alone.
Nick also held the finance brief within the Health department, and was in charge of the NHS productivity program announced in the March 2024 budget and all the NHS Capital projects including the New Hospital Program and hospital upgrades. Nick was also responsible for the Health Department’s Arms Length Bodies including UKHSA, NICE and MHRA and led the UK’s position on Anti-Microbial Resistance on the World Stage.
In 2020 Nick Co-Founded Cignpost Diagnostics / Express Test, which transformed Covid testing during the pandemic and enabled professional sports teams, TV productions and other private sector businesses to operate during Covid, including Formula 1, Wimbledon tennis, PGA golf, Netflix, BBC, Apple TV and Heathrow Airport. Cignpost was probably the fastest growing business of all time, going from £0 to almost £300m turnover in 1 year.
Nick has extensive private sector experience with roles including ITV Strategy Director, where he developed the concept of Freeview with the BBC and was in charge of the Carlton and Granada merger. Previously he was CFO of Laura Ashley and CEO of Top Up TV which was the World’s first successful Digital Terrestrial pay TV company which he established on the back of venture capital.
Nick has also had a number of Government roles, including Chair of London & Continental Railways which performs large scale regeneration around railway stations such as Kings Cross and the Stratford Olympic site and became equivalent to a top 10 housebuilder under Nick’s leadership. Previously he was the Lead NED for DWP and Ministry of Housing departments and Deputy Leader of Westminster Council.
Nick also founded Safe Haven, a social enterprise charity that provides 200 homes for the homeless in London after raising £33 million through an innovative funding model which effectively “securitises housing benefit” thereby requiring no government grants or donations.