Five impacts Age-friendly Communities are having on older people
The newly published Age-friendly Communities Impact Report shows how the UK Network, made up of more than 90 communities and representing more than 4,000 local partners, is having a significant impact on the lives of older people living in their local areas
Our Senior Programme Manager for Localities, Charlotte Lewis, explains how all these places are adopting the World Health Organisation Age-friendly Communities framework, which encourages organisations in local areas to work together, changing and adapting their local systems in ways that improve outcomes of older people.
An incredible 100% of UK Network members believe their Age-friendly Community (AfC) is having a positive impact on older residents, with five key impacts shining through across the UK Network.
Expanding older people’s access to and use of local spaces
AfCs are taking stock of a community’s strengths and gaps in the domains of transport and outdoor spaces and buildings. They are finding out how older people experience them, which is prompting changes to the built environment, in turn empowering residents to be more independent.
Many communities have conducted walking audits with older people which have led to improvements to parks, open spaces, town centres, and pedestrian crossing timings and locations.
Other AfCs in more rural areas have prioritised developing and supporting community transport schemes. In Barnsley, the council worked with older residents to plan the locations for 26 new benches and seats, and Lambeth used age-friendly principles to inform their Kerbside Strategy which has widened pavements and added seating and greenery.
Expanding older people’s access to support and services
AfCs are improving awareness of and communications around services, making services more age-friendly and developing new offers where there are gaps. Communities are both providing digital support, whilst also ensuring there are offline ways to access services and find out what’s happening locally. Others are prioritising financial inclusion, such as Newham, where changes to the delivery of their Our Newham Money Service has led to an 80% increase in the number of people aged 50+ supported by financial services.
‘We have amended how residents can access the Our Newham Money Service, the Volunteering Service, etc – moving to paper, telephone and drop-in – leading to an increase in the number of older residents being supported.’
Increasing older people’s connections to and inclusion in society
Age-friendly Communities run and support many events, activities and initiatives aimed at increasing social connection opportunities. These opportunities connect diverse groups of older people with their peers, as well creating intergenerational connection. More than 40 Age-friendly Communities celebrated International Day of Older People in 2024, with hundreds of activities including a photography exhibition in Perth and Kinross and a fashion show in Hackney.
Other initiatives have taken a more individualised approach, such as Salford’s offer of weekly phone calls for people referred to social prescribing. Older resident Diane talked about how this supported her to join her local Tech and Tea session and then to two volunteering roles:
'I feel I’m part of the community and able to have a role and worth to society through my volunteering.'
Increased opportunities for older people to have their say in local decision-making
One of the foundational principles of all age-friendly work is ensuring there are meaningful ways for older people to be represented in local decision-making. This can look like democratic engagement activities, such as Greater Manchester’s mayoral hustings held by its Older People’s Network and Anglesey’s Right to Vote campaign where they raised awareness of new voter ID requirements. In other areas they have prioritised developing an ambassador or champion scheme, with almost half of network members developing a scheme. Ambassadors are playing a range of roles locally, from delivering age-friendly training to giving feedback to strategic boards on local plans. Age-friendly Barnet’s coordinator shared about the impact their champions are having:
‘[Champions] lead our age-friendly drop-ins which take place in shopping centres, health centres, libraries and supermarkets to engage with the public and spread information about age-friendly Barnet. This has…allowed us to better represent the people we serve.’
Improving older people’s health and wellbeing
Most members of the UK Network have developed at least one initiative working to improve the health and wellbeing of older residents as part of their Age-friendly Communities. These include strength and balance classes, health MOTs, and nutrition and hydration information programmes. Many activities under the health umbrella are also supporting meaningful social connections, such as Mid Ulster’s social walks, and Middlesborough’s sensory drop-in clinics for people with sight or hearing loss.
One beneficiary of the activities on offer in Brighton and Hove said:
‘I really feel it is making a difference taking part in the gentle exercise activities. I can feel better movement in my arms doing it regularly, after a fall last year I’d lost all my confidence, but this is great, I’m making friends and getting fitter in the process.’
More than 29 million people in the UK now live in age-friendly communities and will benefit from these changes now or in the future. The more places that adopt this approach, the more these practices can be scaled and spread across the country. These changes are being enabled across the country through the strength of the World Health Organisation’s Age-friendly Communities framework and the support offered by the UK Network including capacity building, high quality resources and the sharing of ideas across the UK.
