Hackney’s Ageing Well Strategy: One Year On
Mayoral Advisor for Older People, Cllr Yvonne Maxwell shares an update on the Ageing Well Strategy, one year after it was launched.
"The Ageing Well Strategy was developed through co-production , working with Connect Hackney to recruit and train five peer facilitators, leading to around 400 residents and different organisations working with us to create this strategy.
It was approved in the midst of the pandemic, helping both to inform our response and to look ahead at how the borough can become more age-friendly and really consider and respond to the needs and interests of older residents in Hackney. It is my pleasure to share progress with you.
The Ageing Well Strategy is a 5 year plan that sets out the approach the Council is taking to cater towards the diverse range of people aged 55+ through age friendly policies; building a community that values and includes them, benefits from their contributions and supports them in their later years.
The strategy aims to provide and build on opportunities for greater intergenerational activity, social participation, civic inclusion and localised support through partnership working, including:
- utilising and promoting community assets
- building digital skills
- reviewing the Council’s public realm furniture
- supporting and promoting volunteering
- working with businesses to create more age friendly high streets
- involving older people to co-produce solutions
- creating intergenerational programmes through work with Young Hackney, Hackney Youth Parliament, Hackney Young Futures Commission, schools and children’s centres.
We recruited 40 older residents to join our Hackney Older Citizens Committee, to work with us to implement the Strategy and hold us to account. They have fed into reviews and have met with Officers and Cabinet members to let them know what is important for older people, this is alongside the wider community engagement of older people. We welcome new members, do get in touch if you are 55 + and want to find out more.
In the last year, the Ageing Well strategy and the Hackney Older Citizen’s Committee have been raising the profile of older people and their voices within Hackney Council, especially in relation to opportunities around co-production, importance of intergenerational dialogue and how strategies need to specifically address challenges and aspirations of older people. This strategy is primarily about culture and transformation and how services come to understand needs and interests of older people and respond accordingly.
A key part of this work is about connecting the dots around different service provision, cross departmental working and how services engage older people in the development and delivery of their work, recognising that this population is diverse and there needs to be different channels of engagement to support this. Progress will take time, but we have already begun to see services considering this age group in their plans and programmes of work in a more deliberate and considered manner, and engaging a wider and more diverse group of residents in different ways to ensure meaningful impact.
I am pleased to share with you a summary version of the strategy."
If you would like to discuss anything in relation to this work, including our Older Citizens Committee, please do get in touch with the lead officer at Hackney Council: soraya.zahid@hackney.gov.uk.
The website to access the summary and strategy in full is: https://hackney.gov.uk/ageing-well/