This paper sets out our 10-year localities strategy and our place-based approach to improving later lives. It looks at why we work in localities and how we aim to achieve and measure success.
By 2040, over 40% of the UK population will be aged 50 or over. However, we are not ageing evenly everywhere. Already, one in three local authorities – mostly rural and coastal – have populations with this age profile.
With each locality having its own distinct assets and challenges, we believe that these factors must be taken into account in order to generate solutions that are more likely to be appropriate, locally owned and sustainable.
With this strategy, we will deepen our impact with Strategic Locality Partnerships, grow the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities and build wider motivation and capability for change around the country.
Our ambitions
Strategic Locality Partnerships
These are long-term, collaborative agreements for a minimum of five years, where we employ locally hosted staff, make ageing a top strategic priority, test new approaches and share what works. Partners act as exemplars nationally and regionally and cover a range of geographic settings and political contexts. Currently, these are with:
UK Network of Age-friendly Communities
We're building a network of places to share and spread good practice through the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities. Members are committed to making their locality a place where everyone can enjoy a good later life. Having adopted the Age-friendly Communities Framework of the World Health Organisation (WHO), they take steps to ensure the views of older residents are at the heart of their plans. We provide the secretariat and support to the network and have so far helped it to grow from 14 to over 45 towns, districts, boroughs, counties, cities and city regions, covering close to 23 million people.
Build wider motivation & capability for change
The actions and decisions of local policy makers and practitioners are critical to enable us to achieve our vision. With the right leadership, there is potential for every place to adopt and scale solutions that we have first tested either with our Strategic Locality Partnerships or identified through the Age-friendly Communities network. We will continue to ensure our evidence, insights and action are relevant to both local and national policy makers.
Over the next 10 years, we aim to deepen our impact with Strategic Locality Partnerships, grow the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities and build wider motivation and capability for change around the country. We have set ourselves clear goals to measure success along the path to our vision of a society where everyone enjoys later life.
