COVID-19 – and the lockdowns it triggered – have reshaped tens of millions of lives around the world. In the UK, for example, prime minister Boris Johnson announced on March 23 2020 that people “must” stay at home. With those words, which launched the country’s first lockdown two years ago, every facet of daily life in Britain came under an unprecedented and extraordinary stress test.
But like the virus, the pandemic’s wider social and economic effects had the potential to remain invisible – and analysis was needed to uncover and understand what was happening behind the UK’s closed front doors.
Since December 2020, the International Public Policy Observatory (IPPO) has been doing just this. A £2 million, ESRC-funded partnership between The Conversation, UCL, Queens University Belfast, the universities of Oxford, Cardiff and Auckland and the International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA), IPPO identifies and reviews evidence from around the world to better inform UK policymakers on the social consequences of COVID-19. Its rapid evidence reviews and global data scans have helped officials formulate better responses to mitigate the biggest social impacts and accelerate the UK’s recovery from the crisis.
Now, during a major one-day event on March 24, IPPO is bringing together government leaders, scientists and academics to focus on the future – and what we’ve learned from the past.
They include: Sir Peter Gluckman, President of the International Science Council; Inaya Rakhmani, Director of the Asia Research Centre; Andy Haldane, who led the government’s recent levelling-up white paper; Professor Alison Park, Chair of the ESRC; BBC and Times commentator David Aaronovich; Siobhan O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s Mental Health Champion; Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University; Angela Scott, Aberdeen Council’s Chief Executive; and Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol.
Chaired by Professor Joanna Chataway and Professor Sir Geoff Mulgan, both from UCL, a range of panel sessions will draw on IPPO’s research programme to consider ways to move forward on a variety of issues, from mental health and social capital to education. Joined by Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees of the COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru, Michael Mansfield QC and Professor Matthew Flinders of the University of Sheffield, sessions will also explore what must happen next, as the COVID-19 inquiry process gets underway in the UK.
For more details or to register for the online event, which runs between 9am and 4pm GMT on March 24, please follow this link.