We end the week with a closer look at the career and guiding beliefs of the University of Washington prevention scientist Professor David Hawkins who on Wednesday counseled Birmingham UK on the public health approaches that might be adopted by its 50,000 children’s services workforce. He was in between visits to Northern Ireland to give advice on drug misuse and to the Republic of Ireland to consult with philanthropy on how best to promote communities that care.

After Steve Aos’s insights into cost-benefit analysis, a second US expert, Professor David Hawkins from the University of Washington’s Social Development Research Group gives keynote advice and encouragement to the Birmingham workforce leading the city’s $2.6bn Brighter Futures prevention initiative.

The massed ranks of the children’s services workforce – from health, education, the police and the voluntary sector – are at the city’s International Conference Centre today to hear about ambitious proposals for using the best of prevention science to secure brighter futures for all Birmingham’s children and young people.

On the eve of Birmingham UK’s Working Together for Brighter Futures launch conference, we profile the work of one of the day's key speakers. Economist and cost-benefit analyst Steve Aos is visiting England’s second city from Washington Institute for Public Policy where he has been at the center of a unique relationship between prevention science and a US state legislature. Click the video screen to hear him describe the potential of the emerging Birmingham-Washington connection.

Continuing our coverage of the Society for Prevention Research conference in San Francisco we look forward to key presentations by three specialists who are riding the wave of advancing understanding of the influence on children’s health and development of interacting genetic susceptibilities and environmental factors. They’ll call for a sharper environment “lens” to match the incisiveness of the latest genetic insights.