Chair: Jon Snow

Jon Snow is the presenter of Britain's award-winning Channel 4 News. Jon has also hosted a wide range of discussion programmes and a number of high-profile documentaries for Channel 4, the most recent being War on Terror Trial, Bloody Sunday Debate, Snow in Japan, The Emillionaire Show and Secrets of the Honours System. Jon was presented with the prestigious Richard Dimbleby Award for his outstanding contribution to the world of news and current affairs at the 2005 BAFTA Television Awards.

Keynote Speaker: The Rt Hon David Miliband MP, Minister of Communities and Local Government

David Miliband is the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's second cabinet minister and supports the Deputy Prime Minister across the Office as a whole.

David Miliband entered the Cabinet as Minister of Communities and Local Government on 6 May 2005, supporting the Deputy Prime Minister on housing, planning, regeneration and local government.

He was previously appointed Minister for the Cabinet Office on 15 December 2004 and prior to that, Minister of State for Schools from June 2002. He has been Labour Member of Parliament for South Shields since June 2001.
He was Head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit and Head of Policy in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition. From 1989 to 1994 he was Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and from 1992 to 1994 Secretary of the Commission on Social Justice.

David Miliband was born on 15 July 1965. He was educated at Haverstock Comprehensive School in London. He graduated with First Class Honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Corpus Christi College, Oxford University, and completed a Masters Degree in Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Kennedy Scholar.

Mr Miliband edited Reinventing the Left in 1994, and co-edited Paying for Inequality. He was co-founder of the Centre for European Reform. He is President of South Shields Football Club, and a member of the Whiteleas and Cleadon Social Clubs

Joyce Redfearn, Chief Executive, Wigan Council

Joyce Redfearn joined Wigan Council in May 2005.
From December 2000 until moving to Wigan, Joyce was Chief Executive at Gloucestershire County Council where she had overseen a major journey of improvement which culminated in the Authority receiving a good rating through the CPA assessment process.

Prior to Gloucestershire Joyce was Chief Executive of Monmouthshire County Council, a neighbouring unitary authority. On joining in 1995 Joyce’s first task was to set up the Authority, bringing together previous County and District services. During her time with Monmouthshire Joyce was invited by the Secretary of State for Wales to join the National Assembly Advisory Group which helped by advising on the setting up of the Welsh Assembly.

Prior to Monmouthshire Joyce spent 8 years in Bolton Metropolitan Council as Assistant Chief Executive. Before Bolton Joyce worked in London for the GLC and then on its abolition the ILEA. Joyce has also worked for the British Medical Association – as one of its first Industrial Relations Officers, having trained and worked in Personnel for the Equal Opportunities commission. Joyce’s first post following university was with the London Borough of Camden.

Joyce’s professional discipline is personnel but most of her career has been spent in newly created roles and in managing change, development and improvement.

Louise Casey, Respect Task Force

Louise Casey is the Government’s co-ordinator for respect, a role that she has held since September 2005. Louise heads up the new, cross-government Respect Task Force based in the Home Office. This new unit will play a vital role in improving our communities and the lives of people in them by tackling problems such as poor parenting and yobbish behaviour.

Louise was formerly the National Director of the Government’s Anti-social Behaviour Unit, also based in the Home Office. The Unit was established in January 2003 to ensure our response to tackling anti-social behaviour is improved.

Before that Louise led the successful strategy to reduce the number of people sleeping rough and established the Homelessness Directorate in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Between 1992 and 1999, Louise was Deputy Director of Shelter and, prior to that, held a number of posts in the social welfare sector.

Stella Manzie, Chief Executive of Coventry City Council

Stella Manzie has been Chief Executive of Coventry City Council since September 2001. She was previously Chief Executive of West Berkshire Council for four years having overseen its transition to unitary council from Newbury District Council. Stella’s career has encompassed work in both the public and private sector. She was Borough Director of Redditch Borough Council for five years and spent three years as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse. Her early experience included working for Birmingham City Council, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and the Association of County Councils.

Stella’s educational background includes an MSocSci from Birmingham University and an MA in English Literature at Cambridge University. In 1997 she won the Birmingham University Kieron Walsh Memorial Essay Prize on the subject of ‘Citizenship’. In January 2001 Stella was awarded an OBE for services to local government. She is a member of the Women and Work Commission and was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of HM Treasury in 2005.

Councillor Dame Jane Roberts, Camden Council

Cllr Roberts has been a Councillor for 14 years. Prior to being elected Leader in May 2000, she was the Chair of Camden’s Beacon LEA. Earlier in the 1990s she instigated and completed a major nursery expansion programme across Camden as Chair of Joint Under-Eights Sub-Committee.

In her professional life, she is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Medical Director at Islington Primary Care Trust. She has published a number of academic papers in paediatrics, psychiatry and child psychiatry and was co-editor and contributor to ‘The Politics of Attachment’ (Free Association Books; 1996).

Cllr Roberts was awarded a DBE in the 2004 New Year’s Honours List for her services to local government.

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, Chairman, Local Government Association. Leader, Kent County Council

Sir Sandy was first elected to Kent County Council in 1989 and has been Leader of the Conservative Group since 1993. In May 1997 he became Leader of Kent County Council and was re-elected in June 2001 with an increased KCC majority.

Born in 1942, Sir Sandy farmed in Zimbabwe before settling in Kent. He has farmed in the County for 37 years at Headcorn and Egerton, concentrating on fruit and fruit packing.

Sir Sandy is Chairman of the Local Government Association since July 2004; Chairman of the Kent Thameside Delivery Board; a trustee of the Centre for Social Justice; and a school governor. He has written widely about public services and social issues. In October 2005, he stood down as Leader of Kent County Council.

Baroness Andrews OBE, Parliamentary Secretary

(Elizabeth) Kay Andrews, OBE 1998, was raised to the peerage as Baroness Andrews of Southover in the County of East Sussex in 2000. She was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in May 2005. Baroness Andrews supports the Minister for Housing and Planning. She covers all ODPM business in the Lords and is the Customer Minister for Ordnance Survey and the Sustainable Development Minister.

Before being appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary, Baroness Andrews was a Government Whip and Spokesperson in the House of Lords for Health, Work and Pensions, and Education and Skills.

Before being raised to the peerage, Baroness Andrews was a Fellow of the Science Policy Research Unit, Sussex University 1968 - 70; Parliamentary Clerk in the House of Commons 1970 - 85; and Policy Adviser to Neil Kinnock as Leader of the Opposition 1985 - 92. From 1992 - 2002, Baroness Andrews was the Director of Education Extra.

She was educated at Lewis School for Girls, Hengoed, Ystradmynach and went on to study International Politics at University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. At Sussex she took an MA in Political Sociology and subsequently a DPhil in History and Social Studies of Science.