Becoming an Age-friendly Community
Read Frequently Asked Questions and learn about the steps necessary to becoming an Age-friendly Community and joining the UK Network.
View Frequently Asked Questions here
Why should your place become an Age-friendly Community?
Our communities need to work for everyone, considering all protected characteristics, including age. In the UK, every year more people turn 50 than 18, and we know that often our needs change as we grow older. Age-friendly Communities ensure that the local environment, services and social networks enable people to age well and support intergenerational relations.
This is more important than ever. There are already more older people living in our communities than ever before and this will only grow. In 20 years’ time 1 in 4 of us will be over 65. Communities must take a preventative approach now to make the most of the opportunities, and combat the challenges, of their ageing population.
Benefits of the World Health Organisation Age-friendly Communities approach
Embedding the WHO Age-friendly Communities Framework is an evidence-based, globally- recognised approach for creating communities that are better places to age:
Targeted use of resources
The WHO framework supports communities to understand the unique challenges and opportunities that demographic change poses to their place and then make strategic decisions about where to use limited resources to make the biggest difference.
Takes a preventative approach
Age-friendly Communities work to support people to remain active and more connected for longer, resulting in better health outcomes, and less reliance on critical and crisis responses.
Embeds the voice of older people
At the heart of an Age-friendly Community is the meaningful engagement and involvement of older people. They ensure that older people can shape their local community and place, so that services and spaces work for people as they age.
System-wide, partnership approach
Many different people and sectors affect how well we age in our local area. Age-friendly Communities bring public, private and voluntary sector partners together so everyone can understand their role and take action to make improvements.
Brings everything together
Becoming an age-friendly community is not just about starting new things, it’s a way to bring together and make visible all the work that is already happening in your community which is age-friendly.
Support from the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities
By becoming members of the UK Network, communities are joining a growing movement of places giving them access to contacts, ideas and expertise from the UK and across the globe, all for free.
At the Centre for Ageing Better, we work with the Network to provide guidance, connect places and offer support to member communities in their efforts to become more age-friendly.
Support for the Network includes access to:
- Weekly peer learning events sharing good age-friendly practice and research
- An annual in-person conference
- Training and workshops on embedding the age-friendly approach
- Case studies of good practice
- Connections to peer across the country facing similar challenges
FAQs
Different types of place can become an age-friendly community, from towns as the smallest size, through boroughs, districts and cities, up to city regions.
Whatever the size, all places need to demonstrate their political commitment to the work. This might mean the leader of the council writing a letter of support, or the approval of a motion at a cabinet meeting. Because of this, Age-friendly Communities normally reflect the geography of a local authority. All councils have different powers, but all can make a difference.
There is no accreditation for communities to say they have achieved “age-friendly status.” Becoming an Age-friendly Community is about commitment to follow the WHO framework and, through this, make improvements at whatever pace you can. Communities can share that they have joined the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities to demonstrate this commitment.
All types of organisations, in different sectors, have a role to play in making a community a better place to age- it’s not just about health and social care. These can include transport providers, libraries, employers, voluntary sector organistions, local businesses and academic institutions.
Normally an organisation or partnership “leads” the bringing together of these partners which might be a department within the local authority (such as public health, adult social care, public service reform, communities, equalities), or a local voluntary sector organisation (such as an Age UK or Community Foundation).
There is no definitive set of costs associated with implementing your action plan to become an age-friendly community and joining the UK Network is free. Becoming an Age-friendly Community is about the commitment to make improvements with whatever resource and partnerships you have available. Often no new money is needed – becoming an Age-friendly Community can simply involve using existing resources better.
Age-friendly communities will draw on the time and resources from partners across the community, these will vary from place to place.
In the lowest resource version of age-friendly, coordination could be provided by an existing member of staff in the council or a voluntary sector organisation. You could also have no direct project funding costs, instead focus on making sure age is considered in all policies or bringing together and publicising existing work.
With more resource, communities might have a dedicated age-friendly officer post and provide funding for specific projects- such as age-friendly training for local businesses, running a take a seat initiative, or a pension credit uptake campaign.
To become an Age-friendly Community you need political commitment from councillors representing that place. The local authority will be an essential partner in taking a whole place approach to ageing, so will often coordinate the work.
However, any organisation or individual can push for their community to become an Age-friendly Community. In particular, voluntary sector organisations who represent older people in that place.
If you would like your area to become an Age-friendly Community you can write to your local councillor using our template letter
Communities interested in joining the UK Network can do so by completing our registration form to show the progress they have made in the first steps in embedding the Age-friendly Communities approach (i.e. gaining political commitment, looking at their data, considering how they will embed the voice of older people).
Contact [email protected] to receive support to become an age-friendly community and receive the UK Network registration form
The UK Network of Age-friendly Communities is an affiliate of the WHO Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities (GNAFCC). The Centre for Ageing Better works with WHO to provide more direct support to communities across the UK, whilst also benefiting from the learning of the 1,500 Age-friendly Communities in over 50 countries around the world.
As an affiliate we encourage all members of the UK Network to sign up to the GNAFCC to become part of the global movement. To become a GNAFCC communities must show the political commitment they have for the work in a letter signed by the most senior political leader in their place.