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A Fair Society - GUEST POST by Chris Perry
BLOG PODS #41 - A Fairer Society - GUEST POST by Chris Perry
A book review by the author.
INTRODUCTION
This is the first guest post since I re-launched the blog on Substack. I hope it’ll be the first of many.
Chris Perry is a former Director of Social Services for South Glamorgan County Council, a former Non-executive Director of the Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust, a former Director of Age Concern Hampshire and a presenter of an award-winning current affairs programme on Express FM.
He has written extensively, in recent years, on health and social care, youth justice and income inequality and poverty, and although the articles have been well received they have not, as yet, impacted Government thinking as he hoped.
Now, Chris has written a book which has been published on Amazon recently. The book is intended as a catalyst to debate by giving the issues a longer shelf life and taking them to a wider audience.
This summary is written in the third person by Chris Perry himself.
A FAIR SOCIETY by Chris J Perry
Chris considers, widening income inequality and increasing poverty to be the great social evils of our time.
Global billionaire wealth increased by $2 trillion in 2024. That is roughly $5.7 billion per day and was three times faster than the previous year. In contrast the median household disposable income in the UK in 2023 was £34,500: a 2.5% decrease on £35,100 in 2022.
'The NHS and Social Care are in crisis and in need of radical reform, restructuring and cultural change based upon a whole systems review.'
Social Work is undervalued and social workers misused. The utilities, gas and electricity, are making huge profits and paying extortionate salaries and bonuses while people go cold. The water boards are failing to keep up with acceptable standards. There are concerns about rising knife crime amongst young people.
And…
In 2022 / 23 there were 4.3m children in the UK being brought up in poverty: 2/3rds of whom had a parent in work.
In March 2023 there were 107,317 children in the care of the local authority in the UK – the highest number ever.
In December 2023 112,660 homeless households were living in temporary accommodation in England.
Despite low detection rates the courts could not keep pace with demand and prisons were bursting at the seams.
Two million older retired people were living in poverty in the UK in 2024.
It’s to this state of affairs that the book speaks.
Drawing upon years of experience and empirical evidence, Chris sets out to demonstrate that one cannot address whole systems problems with component level solutions.
He argues that unless Government takes steps to reverse the widening income inequality and increasing poverty in our society the NHS will not keep pace with demand. Government will constantly be playing catch up and cannot go on throwing more and more money at the first aid camp at the bottom of the cliff without building a fence at the top - treating the symptoms not the causes.
There is a wealth of evidence on the social determinants of health which has demonstrated the correlation between income and health and is well documented (editor’s note: see the excellent book, The Health Gap, for an encyclopaedic coverage of this evidence)
A Fairer Society considers the causes of income inequality and poverty and the effect on physical and mental health, the quality of life, motivation in employment, demand upon health and social care, homelessness, anti-social behaviour and crime.
'Government should use identified savings and agreed additional expenditure to pump prime a ripple effect of radical reform'
It traces the changes in the public sector over the past 50 years and advocates Government should use identified savings and agreed additional expenditure to pump prime a ripple effect of radical reform, restructuring and cultural change across the public sector based on a “whole-systems approach” and increase the state pension and tax-free personal allowance to lift people out of poverty and reduce demand upon the NHS.
The challenge is to get, and keep, as many people as possible talking about the issues, causes and possible solutions so that they become familiar, acceptable and begin to gain traction.
It will take “Political Will” driven by “popular demand” to bring about change. The more people who buy the book the more likely it is that the Government will take note.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I haven’t yet read Chris’ book, but my copy is ordered.
His wealth of experience and enduring passion for children and families battling the intrinsic inequalities in UK society today, make it a must read.
I really hope the government will take his views on board.
See you in the next one!
See Chris’ book on Amazon
More information:
See Jonny’s temporary website - here
LinkedIn: Connect with Chris on LinkedIn here
BOOK: The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World by Michael Marmot (link). This is an absolute beaut!
Subscribe & Follow?
You can join the email list for this blog publication here. Your information is safe and you can unsubscribe anytime very easily.
You can also “Like” this site on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter. The voiceovers are also on YouTube and Spotify.
©️ Jonny Matthew 2025
Get full access to Jonny Matthew’s Substack at jonnyvm.substack.com/subscribe
View all episodes
By Information & inspiration for working with troubled kids - with Jonny MatthewBLOG PODS #41 - A Fairer Society - GUEST POST by Chris Perry
A book review by the author.
INTRODUCTION
This is the first guest post since I re-launched the blog on Substack. I hope it’ll be the first of many.
Chris Perry is a former Director of Social Services for South Glamorgan County Council, a former Non-executive Director of the Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust, a former Director of Age Concern Hampshire and a presenter of an award-winning current affairs programme on Express FM.
He has written extensively, in recent years, on health and social care, youth justice and income inequality and poverty, and although the articles have been well received they have not, as yet, impacted Government thinking as he hoped.
Now, Chris has written a book which has been published on Amazon recently. The book is intended as a catalyst to debate by giving the issues a longer shelf life and taking them to a wider audience.
This summary is written in the third person by Chris Perry himself.
A FAIR SOCIETY by Chris J Perry
Chris considers, widening income inequality and increasing poverty to be the great social evils of our time.
Global billionaire wealth increased by $2 trillion in 2024. That is roughly $5.7 billion per day and was three times faster than the previous year. In contrast the median household disposable income in the UK in 2023 was £34,500: a 2.5% decrease on £35,100 in 2022.
'The NHS and Social Care are in crisis and in need of radical reform, restructuring and cultural change based upon a whole systems review.'
Social Work is undervalued and social workers misused. The utilities, gas and electricity, are making huge profits and paying extortionate salaries and bonuses while people go cold. The water boards are failing to keep up with acceptable standards. There are concerns about rising knife crime amongst young people.
And…
In 2022 / 23 there were 4.3m children in the UK being brought up in poverty: 2/3rds of whom had a parent in work.
In March 2023 there were 107,317 children in the care of the local authority in the UK – the highest number ever.
In December 2023 112,660 homeless households were living in temporary accommodation in England.
Despite low detection rates the courts could not keep pace with demand and prisons were bursting at the seams.
Two million older retired people were living in poverty in the UK in 2024.
It’s to this state of affairs that the book speaks.
Drawing upon years of experience and empirical evidence, Chris sets out to demonstrate that one cannot address whole systems problems with component level solutions.
He argues that unless Government takes steps to reverse the widening income inequality and increasing poverty in our society the NHS will not keep pace with demand. Government will constantly be playing catch up and cannot go on throwing more and more money at the first aid camp at the bottom of the cliff without building a fence at the top - treating the symptoms not the causes.
There is a wealth of evidence on the social determinants of health which has demonstrated the correlation between income and health and is well documented (editor’s note: see the excellent book, The Health Gap, for an encyclopaedic coverage of this evidence)
A Fairer Society considers the causes of income inequality and poverty and the effect on physical and mental health, the quality of life, motivation in employment, demand upon health and social care, homelessness, anti-social behaviour and crime.
'Government should use identified savings and agreed additional expenditure to pump prime a ripple effect of radical reform'
It traces the changes in the public sector over the past 50 years and advocates Government should use identified savings and agreed additional expenditure to pump prime a ripple effect of radical reform, restructuring and cultural change across the public sector based on a “whole-systems approach” and increase the state pension and tax-free personal allowance to lift people out of poverty and reduce demand upon the NHS.
The challenge is to get, and keep, as many people as possible talking about the issues, causes and possible solutions so that they become familiar, acceptable and begin to gain traction.
It will take “Political Will” driven by “popular demand” to bring about change. The more people who buy the book the more likely it is that the Government will take note.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I haven’t yet read Chris’ book, but my copy is ordered.
His wealth of experience and enduring passion for children and families battling the intrinsic inequalities in UK society today, make it a must read.
I really hope the government will take his views on board.
See you in the next one!
See Chris’ book on Amazon
More information:
See Jonny’s temporary website - here
LinkedIn: Connect with Chris on LinkedIn here
BOOK: The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World by Michael Marmot (link). This is an absolute beaut!
Subscribe & Follow?
You can join the email list for this blog publication here. Your information is safe and you can unsubscribe anytime very easily.
You can also “Like” this site on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter. The voiceovers are also on YouTube and Spotify.
©️ Jonny Matthew 2025
Get full access to Jonny Matthew’s Substack at jonnyvm.substack.com/subscribe