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Co-production of Leeds Age Friendly Charter

Status: Completed

Leeds United Kingdom
Print this page City population: 79300020% over 60Practice started in 2016

Summary

Building on our long history of consultation and co-production with older people, a new age friendly charter has been developed by the Leeds Older People’s Forum Time to Shine team on behalf of our Age Friendly Leeds Partnership.  Through consultation with 176 older people around Leeds (via focus groups and written questionnaires), Time to Shine posed questions related to each of the World Health Organisation’s age friendly domains, looking for what older people would want to see in each of those domains. Many common themes emerged, which were incorporated into the first draft of the Charter. Time to Shine took this draft back to the original contributors for comment, and incorporated feedback into a final version of the Charter. Participants gave positive feedback about the process: one said, “I am pleased to note that someone is taking an interest in lives that built that foundation of our present society.”While the Charter is a starting point only, it is a representation of the views of Older People themselves, rather than any assumptions professionals might make.

Website: http://timetoshineleeds.org/projects/age-friendly-work

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Sector(s): Labor

Desired outcome for older people:
Contribute

Contact details

Name: Axel, Emily

Email address: emily@opforum.org.uk

Preferred language(s): English

Age-friendly practice in detail (click to expand):

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Older People’s Association

Others involved in the project:
  • Local authorities

How collaboration worked: This work was carried out on behalf of our Age Friendly Leeds Partnership which includes representation from the public, private and voluntary sectors.

Older people’s involvement: Older people were involved in the age-friendly practice at multiple or all stages

Details on older people’s involvement: Older people were consulted during the initial stage to get information about what would make Leeds more age friendly. They were consulted again about a first draft of the Charter so that they could give comments and suggestions, and make statements about whether the draft reflected their initial input.

Moving forward

Has the impact of this age-friendly practice been analysed: No

Do you plan to evaluate your age-friendly practice? Yes

Feedback:
After we launched the Charter at an event, one attendee contacted us with feedback stating that she did not feel the event itself was particularly age friendly. Technical problems meant that the audiovisual materials were difficult to see/hear, and we did not give an opportunity for introductions, making this person feel left out of the group. We fully took this feedback on board and it will inform how we arrange future events. Others who participated in the process have said that it was a great experience to be involved, though there is some skepticism about how many of the pledges contained in the Charter will actually be followed through on. There is a great awareness of how austerity affects the resource available to devote to age friendly practices.

Looking back

Reflections:
I would have liked to have been more inclusive in the range of voices I heard from. Though the consultation was diverse in terms of gender, and sexual orientation, and ethnicity to an extent, certain ethnic groups were not included, such as Gypsies, travelers, and recent immigrants.

Challenges:
Drawing all of the information together in a concise document proved to be challenging. I addressed this by using a mind map to put all of the responses into themes, and also produced a larger report which could include a more comprehensive reflection of the process and statements made during the consultation. Moderating some of the larger focus groups also proved somewhat difficult, and in retrospect I would have either split them into smaller groups or employed the help of a second facilitator to ensure that everyone’s voice could be properly heard.