Bristol Age-Friendly Business Toolkit

This toolkit, produced in 2019, is a guide for businesses to help them to understand how and why they should adapt their spaces, activities, products and communication to suit the needs of older patrons. It outlines how the local age demographic is changing, what implications this has for business, and why age-friendliness is important not just for business ethics and public perception, but because older people hold spending power. We have consolidated the eight domains into three headings: environment and accessibility; respect and inclusion; and added value. As well as an explanation of each of these factors, there are lists of practical ideas that businesses can implement to improve their performance in each domain, and case studies from four businesses that demonstrate best practice in all three. The toolkit ends with a checklist for businesses to complete to help them to identify key areas for improvement, and an action plan template to map out how to achieve these aims. Also included is a list of UK-based accreditation schemes, links to additional resources such as guides produced by the Centre for Ageing Better and Alzheimer’s Society, and a list of local contacts.

The businesses featured in the guide are all Bristol-based, and the statistics provided in the background information about demographic trends are also local, but most of the content in this toolkit can and has been used by other Age-Friendly communities. If you would like to use any of the content from this guide for your own resources, please feel free to get in touch.