12 October 2018
Henry Thompson, IFoA Policy Manager explains why the UK political party conferences are such a great opportunity to highlight the expertise of the actuarial profession and promote the public interest
This autumn, I accompanied IFoA President Jules Constantinou to Liverpool and Birmingham for the annual Labour and Conservative Party Conferences – the first foray at the party conferences for the IFoA in 3 years. 
For the uninitiated, party conference season can seem like the Great Migration, with thousands of attendees including politicians, journalists, lobbyists, special interest groups and the party faithful themselves stampeding into an English city outside of London for a few days, filling up every possible hotel room and train seat (as well as the bars…).
Whilst the leaders’ speeches and stories around party unity/disunity tend to dominate the headlines, the so-called fringe events provide those wishing to inform the political agenda with a unique opportunity to engage with the key decision makers on both sides of the political divide.
Whilst the conference circuit is sometimes criticised for being light on policy detail, it does offer an unrivalled opportunity to make contact with a vast array of MPs, Peers, policymakers and stakeholders in one place. Moreover, it enables us to foster new relationships, build the IFoA’s reputation as a trusted expert voice, and increase awareness of the actuarial skillset.
With social care funding identified as our policy priority, the IFoA partnered with the political monitoring outfit Dods and its Health & Care Forum – a collection of like-minded organisations with an interest in health and care policy issues wishing to communicate with the key decision makers in the area.
Through the Forum, we co-sponsored three events across the two conferences. At the Labour Party Conference, we hosted a drinks reception with remarks from both the Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Jon Ashworth MP and Assembly Member Vaughn Gething, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services in the Welsh Government. Both outlined Labour’s assessment of the pressures on the health system and their solutions should Labour be elected.
A week later at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, we hosted a similar reception with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the Rt. Hon Matt Hancock MP, on the Sunday evening. The morning after, our third and final set-piece event saw the Health Secretary receive a wide-ranging grilling on his brief during an ‘in-conversation’ style interview, with questions from Jules on the long-awaited social care green paper. The Health Secretary discussed mental health, cancer screening and the role of technology in the NHS, before elaborating on a proposal likely to be in the green paper around the idea for an automatic enrolment-style solution to fund social care.
At all three events, we were able to speak privately with the elected representatives about the state of play on social care, and highlighted the expertise and knowledge that the actuarial profession can lend to some of the current public policy challenges facing the government.
On return to London, we are already taking full advantage of the invaluable contacts made over the last few weeks and hope that these new relationships will enable us to advance policy making in the public interest over the coming months and years.
