Making a real and lasting difference to older people’s lives
It’s been ten years since Ageing Better was created to help society respond to the opportunities and challenges of our nation’s ageing population
Like many of us approaching a milestone birthday, the anniversary has prompted us to reflect on what we have achieved so far — and where we focus our effort next, writes Ageing Better’s Chief Executive, Dr Carole Easton OBE.
Just over a decade ago, the Centre for Ageing Better – a government What Works Centre - was established with Lottery funding in the wake of a House of Lords report.
The report warned that our nation was ‘woefully underprepared’ for our ageing population, with huge consequences for individuals and communities, our health and care systems and for our workforce and economy, if we failed to respond to the shifting demographics of the nation.
Since then we have built a wide range of evidence and insights, networks and resources to help shape policy and practice around ageing and demographic change. We have worked with hundreds of organisations, national and local government, and with a range of industries and sectors to explore how we can do things differently.
In the business of influencing policy and practice, a decade can be both a long time and a short time. Some wins come more easily than others. And it can be easy when things are changing incrementally to miss or overlook the impact they are having over time.
We decided to produce an impact report highlighting ten proud achievements from this time – successes achieved through our work with you all as colleagues, partners and supporters.
Here’s just a few of the achievements we feature in the report:
1. Establishing a network of 100 Age-friendly Communities
We have developed the WHO’s Network of Age-friendly Communities in the UK to include more than 100 places - that’s 100+ areas the length and breadth of the UK that now have the support and guidance needed to make their communities great places for people to grow older in. Together, our network members cover more than 30million residents.
2. Making the country’s homes more accessible
Our housing is not fit for the future and our country’s changing age profile - just one in ten homes are suitable for people with accessibility needs. We led a campaign which resulted in the government announcing plans to make at least 40% of new homes accessible. Should the proposals be taken forward, it will mean hundreds of thousands of homes being built with accessibility features, from a toilet at entrance level and level access to the front door, that will make a material difference to people’s lives.
3. Helping UK employers to retain and attract older workers
Ensuring people can remain working as they get older is integral to the country’s economic growth, employers’ productivity and people’s financial security. We established an Age-friendly Employer Pledge to help employers recruit and retain people aged 50+. More than 600 employers, including household brands, have become members and have access to our practical tools and guidance on interviews, training, flexible working guidance, and workplace culture. Three in five of our pledged employers report significant differences in the recruitment and retention of older workers because of their membership.
4. Delivering the country’s first campaign to change public attitudes to ageing
Ageism is ubiquitous. One in three people hold ageist beliefs and two in three people over-50 report negative treatment because of their age. We launched the country’s first anti-ageism campaign, Age Without Limits, which last year reached 12 million people across the country. Of those who saw the campaign, 87% took action to challenge ageism as a result.
5. Making detailed ageing data accessible to all
Our seminal State of Ageing report, initially launched in 2018, was the first report of its kind to give an in-depth, high-quality summary of how people in the country are ageing. It includes a range of data covering demographic change, health, finance, housing, and employment trends. Now having produced five editions we see State of Ageing regularly cited by government, parliamentarians, media, academics, businesses, and community organisations. And we’ve seen local authorities creating their own State of Ageing reports to better understand their own local ageing populations.
I hope you will find time to read our impact report in full and hear about some of our other achievements.
While ten years in is a useful moment to take stock, it’s also an opportunity to look forward. We are proud of our record, but today we arguably face an even more challenging future, with too many people spending longer lives in poor health and financial insecurity. That’s why at the Centre for Ageing Better we have committed in our new strategy to spend the years ahead redoubling our efforts and further developing our programmes around good work, better homes and communities, tackling inequalities and ageism. We have seen change across these areas, but there is so much more we are ambitious to do and that we know we can achieve.
We look forward to continuing to work alongside you all - as employers, policymakers, academics, funders and community organisations. Together we can drive the change that’s needed for us all to look forward to a good later life.