Future Consultations

The quality of people entering public life is crucial for Britain’s future success. We are working with Civic Future to bring a cadre of their recently selected Fellows to the House to begin their year-long fellowship. The weekend will feature an introduction to the programme as well as detailed discussion of extreme long-term risks such as pandemics, nuclear war, population decline, and artificial general intelligence. The intention is to establish a new talent pipeline to attract brilliant and inspirational people from various backgrounds and support them to become public leaders.

The Forces in MindTrust exists to enable ex-Service personnel and their families to make a successful and sustainable transition to civilian life. FiMT delivers this mission by generating an evidence base that influences and underpins policy-making and service delivery, and by strengthening the Armed Forces charities sector through collaboration and leadership, and by building its capacity. Our Consultation will reflect this.

We are entering an age of artificial intelligence (AI). Although the term “artificial intelligence” was coined nearly 70 years ago, and AI has been making tremendous technical and market progress for more than a decade, there has been a huge leap in perceived possibilities and public attention to AI in the past year. However, the many benefits of AI are not without substantial risks, and these risks have become increasingly apparent with the development and spread of Large Language Models. It is the aim of this Consultation to discuss those risks and consider approaches to engaging with and mitigating them.

This year marks 25 years since the publication of the Social Exclusion Unit’s groundbreaking report ‘Bringing Britain together: a national strategy for neighbourhood renewal.’ This kickstarted New Labour ‘s approach to tackling place-based disadvantage through its neighbourhood renewal strategy, providing the basis for a raft of policies and programmes supporting resident-led regeneration of deprived neighbourhoods. Generally regarded as successful on their own terms, subsequent governments failed to build on their momentum and deliver on the strategy’s long-term ambition that “that within 10 to 20 years no- one should be seriously disadvantaged by where they live.”

We will use this consultation to bring together diverse perspectives from senior policy experts, practitioners, community leaders and parliamentarians to explore the case for a new focus on deprived neighbourhoods; discuss the learning from previous initiatives and map out the government action and targeted interventions that should be taken to turn them around.

This consultation will be held in partnership with Local Trust.

Shared experiences across generations are amongst the most enjoyable, enriching and memorable. Yet until now there has been no single point where the value of intergenerational activity is supported. Intergenerational practice should be recognised as a central pillar and foundational building block of society, essential for creating stronger and more connected communities for the long term. Nurturing this type of collaboration can lead to increased empathy, understanding, mutual respect and appreciation for different perspectives, as well as a stronger sense of belonging and social connectedness. The Consultation will look at how intergenerational practice can respond directly to local and national agendas, addressing societal issues such as ageism, social isolation, and inequality.

Our Consultation will have as its starting point the question, ‘What sort of NHS do we as a nation want?’ Using cancer care as our template, we want to bring together thought leaders from across society to help us shape the future of health care in this country. Change will require innovative thinking. It will require a willingness to think laterally about and learn from good practice in other sectors and internationally. This is not a time for tinkering at the edges of the problem. This is time for a radical rethink of our approach to cancer care and, by extension, to health care in general in the UK.

How do we generate a political culture that puts nation before party? How do we energise the electorate to take serious cognisance of their civic responsibility as voters? Why cannot our government operate as collaborative problem-solvers, putting the long-term needs of the nation ahead of those of their parties? Is it that we have the wrong politicians, or are these issues inherent in our parliamentary system and first-past-the-post electoral process? In short, how might we do things better?

From Polarisation to Collaboration: Rethinking Political Culture will explore these issues by bringing together a cross-sectional mix of senior politicians, civil servants, and creative minds from business, media and academia. This initial Consultation will take as its starting point electoral reform, civic engagement, parliamentary procedures and the role that media plays in connecting those who vote with those who govern.