The Welsh Government: The Strategy for an Ageing Society

Status: Ongoing

Welsh Government Wales

Print this page City population: 300000095% over 60Practice started in 2021

Summary

The Welsh Government’s vision is for an age-friendly Wales that supports people to live and age well and upholds the independence, participation, care, self-fulfillment, and dignity of older people always.

The Strategy for an Ageing Society adopts a rights-based approach that promotes equality and social justice across a range of policy areas and places older people’s voices at the core of policy making. The strategy includes a wide range of cross-cutting themes and Government objectives and aims to tackle age-related poverty, enhance people’s well-being, improve local services, and retain people’s capabilities.

Annual funding of £1.1million has been allocated to the 22 local authorities in Wales to create an age-friendly nation as a Welsh Government commitment until 2026. Age Friendly Communities Officers have been appointed in local authorities to develop a local partnership approach towards becoming part of the WHO Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities and involve older people in the planning and delivery of local services.

An annual strategy delivery plan is produced with support and scrutiny from the Ministerial Advisory Forum on Ageing. The delivery plan tracks progress on key areas such as health, social care, transport, and housing, helps determine whether interventions are making a difference and identifies areas for development to improve the lives of older people across Wales. Welsh Government officials have also worked with Local Councilors to become Age Friendly Champions to help push forward the age-friendly agenda at cabinet level in local authorities.

Four local authorities (Cardiff, Flintshire, Anglesey and Vale of Glamorgan) have been accepted as members of the WHO Global Network with more due to join the global movement towards creating fantastic communities to live in.

Website: https://www.gov.wales/age-friendly-wales-our-strategy-ageing-society

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Sector(s): Information and communication

Other sector(s): All 22 local Authorities in Wales and third sector organisations across Wales including charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups.

Desired outcome for older people:
Learn, grow and make decisions

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:

Ageism
Accessibility
Healthy behaviours (e.g. physical activity)
Intergenerational activities
Inclusion
Participation
Technologies

Contact details

Name: Lewis, Rachel

Email address: OlderPeoplesRights@gov.wales

Preferred language(s): English

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

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Local authorities

How collaboration worked: The Older People’s Rights Branch within Welsh Government held quarterly Age Friendly Communities Network meetings to support age friendly initiatives that embed age friendly policies and practices in local authorities. Such partnerships drive forward an age friendly movement that is challenging the way people feel about ageing and is creating communities that support individuals to live and age well.

Older people’s involvement: Older people helped to implement the age-friendly practice

Details on older people’s involvement: Older people are at the heart of the work around the Strategy for an Ageing Society, which reframes older people as active contributors to the Welsh economy and cultural life. Older people’s knowledge, experience and skills are utilized to help plan and take part in age friendly activities all over the country, fully contributing to creating a Wales where people look forward to growing older.

Moving forward

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

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

Expansion plans:
Welsh Government’s funding of £1.1million to local authorities in Wales has continued for 2024-2025, equating to £50,000 to each local authority to fund a dedicated age friendly post . Funding will support the implementation of the Strategy for an Ageing Society as more local authorities prepare their applications to gain membership of the World Health Organisation’s Global Network for Age Friendly Cities and Communities. The Welsh Government will continue to hold networking meetings to support local authorities in their journey to becoming age friendly and work closely with appointed Age Friendly leads and Age Friendly Champions

Looking back

Reflections:
It would have been beneficial to have more engagement with Age Friendly Champions . Going forward, the Welsh Government has set up network meetings between Champions to help push the age-friendly agenda forward at a senior level within local Government and age-friendly workshops for Champions to discuss how to get involved to implement age-friendly communities.

Challenges:
Some local authorities have told us that 50+ forums are not always successful. Therefore, we try to encourage local authorities to try a range of engagement mechanisms that suit their local communities.