Susan Woodward OBE – Chair
itv PLC

I joined the Commission to try to help make a difference.

I believe we can do this if we stay focussed on what it is we have been asked to look at - not to duplicate the role of the professionals working in the health sector; but to bring fresh thinking from a diverse range of public and private backgrounds.

The task may seem huge but I know that it really is possible to change lifestyles: I invented a campaign aimed at tackling obesity called Britain on the Move for ITV which created a National Walking Day, a step-o-meter craze and encouraged 1.2 million people to walk their way to better health. It raised public awareness of the link between inactivity and obesity –and importantly it made changing lifestyle fun, and for most people within their reach.

Britain’s fattest man – Charlie Walduck- joined in and over two years lost 30 stone (to date, yes 30). He now has a new life filled with new ambition. Charlie has proved that you can break out of a circle of poor health, poverty and despair. I want to help change more lives like Charlie.

Evelyn Asante-Mensah OBE
Head of Equality and Diversity, NWDA

The Commission brings together a wealth of knowledge, expertise and experience around tackling health inequalities and improving health and life outcomes.  My vision for the Commission is that it will make a real difference, and that we will be innovative and bold in trying out new things.  I am also committed to ensuring that the Commission from the outset ensures that Equality and Diversity is at the heart of all it does.  As we are looking at supporting those who are most disadvantaged within our society we need to ensure that the needs of Black and Minority Ethnic and other marginalised communities are an intrinsic part of our thinking.

This is a real opportunity for us to make positive, lasting and sustained improvements to the lives of the people of the Liverpool City Region, and I hope to be able to take some of the learning that comes from the Commission’s work to use in the work of Manchester PCT.

Gideon Ben-Tovim
Liverpool City Councillor, Chair of Liverpool PCT

I see the work of the Commission as being supportive of the health improvement/public health work of the PCTs: not seeking to duplicate it, but rather to help focus on those organisations and institutions outside the health service who have a huge role to play in helping the PCTs, and our key partners the local authorities, tackle the issues underlying health inequalities.

Robin Currie
CEO of Liverpool Personal Service Society (PSS)

I believe strongly in the close links between economic and health inequalities. Many of the most disadvantaged in our region see little relevance for them in what others regard as evidence of increasing prosperity for Liverpool.

Claire Dove MBE
CEO of Blackburne House

Beatrice Fraenkel
Liverpool City Councillor, Chair of RENEW Northwest and Cosmopolitan Housing

I think the Commission has the ability to bring together the work I and others are doing and trying to deliver in an often uncoordinated manner.

Together I think we can achieve a tremendous impact for the region by working in a co-operative manner, recognising that often what we do in our own organisations has an impact elsewhere, and that working in a manner that produces shared outcomes cross-sector not only has the potential to produce a greater impact but can be highly cost effective in the short term and can produce great cost benefits in the medium/long term.

Katy Gardner
GP, Marleybone Health Centre

I see this Commission as an opportunity to highlight these issues beyond the health community and to claim those regeneration benefits for those who currently still miss out. There is also still enormous untapped potential, I believe, to involve local people in all aspects of the health sector, something which I have always been keen to promote. I feel that I can bring the experiences of the people I see on a regular basis to the Commission. The size of the task is daunting and I hope most of all that the Commission will have a definite and concrete outcome.

Bernard Hogan-Howe
Chief Constable, Merseyside Police

I am delighted to have been asked to serve on the Commission and hope that at the end of its lifetime, it has identified a select number of areas in which practical and strategic interventions can successfully be made to positively improve the health and economy of the City-region.

From a professional perspective, I am particularly hopeful that the recommendations emerging from the Commission are able to make an impact towards addressing the issues of alcohol, substance misuse and controlled drugs.

Anthony McGuirk
Chief Fire Officer – Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service

The purpose of the Commission, for me, is to deliver a genuine improvement across the City-region in 3 key areas. 

Firstly, instilling a feeling in the community of a real effort and commitment from all Local Agencies to improve health and welfare.  Secondly, for businesses to consider Merseyside as the place to re-locate, to feel that there is a genuine local commitment to providing a healthy and committed workforce. And thirdly, to engage with our vulnerable groups on a day-to-day basis in a way that genuinely promotes a healthy lifestyle and life balance. 

Larry Neild
Journalist and broadcaster

Ole Petersen CBE
Professor of Physiology, University of Liverpool

I believe that the key purpose of the Commission must be to enhance the health and therefore wealth potential of the city and region. I am particularly interested in the question of how to position Liverpool as an important medical science centre in a European context, and hope to help signpost better the very considerable medical research potential in and around the City-region’s Universities and the medical community.

Through my personal research, I have a strong interest in the damaging effects of alcohol abuse. This has serious health and wealth implications particularly for Liverpool and I would also hope to be able to make a difference in this regard.

Cynthia Pine CBE
Dean of Dentistry, University of Liverpool

Sheena Ramsey
CEO Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council

Frances Street
Chair of Wirral PCT

Mark Turner
Head of Sustainability, Morgan Professional Services

I fervently believe that we must be more imaginative and bold in the way we use public funds – this means looking beyond current organisational boundaries, audit, budgetary, and rewards structures, to create new delivery mechanisms capable of genuinely putting the principles behind sustainable development into practice.  There is no better arena or measure for this than health.  Generally we recognise that if we have a job we are more likely to have good health and take a more confident and positive role in society.  Taking this further, it makes sense for the NHS to ensure the way it procures is responsible and imaginative, and actually encourages and rewards health improvement within its own suppliers and their supply chains.

The Commission is a “one off” opportunity for the City Region to take hold of, and address, this challenge.I hope that our recommendations will be forthright, practical and challenging, and furthermore hope that public and private sector partners will respond to the challenge of trying something new as part of a collective effort.