In December 2017, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Leeds City Council and Leeds Older People’s Forum to establish a five-year, strategic partnership to collaborate on a number of joint priorities.
The purpose of the partnership is to enable Leeds to adopt evidence-based practices, pilot innovative approaches, and to generate new evidence of ‘what works’ for ageing well that can be disseminated locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.
The partnership is focusing currently on transport, community and neighbourhoods and housing:
Our initial work on transport secured funding from the Leeds Passenger Transport Improvement Programme to develop a Door to Door transport solution for people in later life and with mobility issues. This will use existing resources in the community transport sector, brokered by an innovative digital solution.
With the Me and My Home group in Leeds, we commissioned research into the housing options information and advice people need as they approach later life. We are working with the group on recommendations from the resulting Home truths Report.
We commissioned research into community contributions, as part of our review with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, which found people were informally contributing to their community but faced serious barriers to formal volunteering.
We are working with our partners in Leeds and Sheffield Hallam University to evaluate the Leeds Neighbourhood Networks in order to understand how community based approaches can promote better connections, health and participation in our communities.
As members of the Age Friendly Leeds Board we are supporting the City to understand the impact of their work through the development of a set of indicators, included in the age-friendly priority of Leeds Best Council Plan.
