Paul Cann is former Director of Policy at Help the Aged. He is now Chief Executive of Age Concern, Oxfordshire. At Help the Aged he brought together research and policy, and he was particularly involved in Help the Aged's work on pensioner poverty, social exclusion and care issues. Malcolm Dean was the Guardian's lead writer on social affairs and assistant editor. He has also written regularly for the Lancet. He was a special adviser to the Secretary of State for Health until 1979 and the editorial representative on the Scott Trust, who owns The Guardian Media Group plc., from 1994 to 2001.