As part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science we are pleased to invite you to a seminar in which Jamie Ruse from National Energy Action will talk about their newly published research on the important role of the health sector in mitigating the wide-ranging impacts of fuel poverty and cold homes. Leslie Laws from Salford City Council will be talking about their work on this issue in Salford.

The NEA report, 'Get Warm Soon', assesses how many health and wellbeing boards in England are including public health indicators on fuel poverty and excess winter deaths in their needs assessments and health and wellbeing strategies. The report also assesses the extent to which health and wellbeing boards are applying National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommendations to reduce ill health associated with living in a cold home.

There will be plenty of opportunity to ask questions and to discuss future directions for this area of research.

Jamie took up the post of Business and Partnerships Assistant at NEA in July 2015, progressing to the post of Research Officer in July 2016. Most recently she has carried out a research piece that assesses the extent to which health and wellbeing boards in England are taking actions on cold-related ill health according the 2015 NICE guideline on excess winter deaths and the health impacts of cold homes. She also acted as a Research and Communications Consultant for the Game of Homes in conjunction with Meadow Well Connected and Gaiacene, a project that used online gaming techniques via social media to achieve changes in energy efficiency behaviour amongst social housing tenants. Jamie received her PhD in Anthropology from Durham in 2015, for a thesis entitled “Living with the Pain of Home: An ethnography of political activism amongst Mexican migrants in Catalonia”. Between 2013 and 2016 she worked as Project Coordinator for Menos Días Aquí (Fewer Days Here) – a project working with victims of drug war violence in Mexico.

The seminar starts at 2pm and there will be refreshments available from 1:30pm.

The Mary Seacole building is wheelchair accessible.