Age Friendly Nottingham (AFN) aims to make Nottingham a great place to grow older
Nottingham is a diverse city where many older citizens contribute to their vibrant communities through volunteering, working, supporting young people and using their expansive life skills to care for others.
Of the 84,350 citizens aged 50 years or over, 40% are concentrated in four areas of the city – mostly on outer, social housing estates. Long-term health conditions that limit daily activity affect 63% of older citizens and 38% live alone. A quarter of citizens aged over 60 years are affected by low incomes.
AFN focusses on supporting citizens aged 50+ years to have fulfilled lives – feeling valued by all sections of society, living as independently as possible and being encouraged to contribute to their local communities.
Partnership working is key to the success of AFN – our partners include citizens, community and voluntary groups, faith organisations, statutory bodies and business.
AFN is an active member of the UK Age Friendly Cities Network.
Nottingham’s Older Citizens’ Charter
In 2013 older people came together to develop Nottingham’s first Older Citizens’ Charter. The charter demonstrates the values and standards that older citizens expect from Nottingham City Council and partner organisations. It was launched at an event celebrating International Older Peoples Day on 1 October 2014.
Action planning for an age friendly future
Nottingham’s AFN action plan relies on the contributions of cross-sector partners to achieve progress. We work closely with teams who lead on housing, transport, environmental planning, green spaces, social activities, health and care, and reducing health inequalities. Our plan covers the WHO domains of age friendliness but place a particular focus on action that enables our citizens to maintain independence and develop social connections. Age Friendly Nottingham Action Plan 2019-2021 details our plans for the next two years. Key action for AFN includes the following:
International Older People’s Day
Over the past six years, Nottingham has held celebrations to mark the annual International Older People’s Day. Activities have included age friendly dancing in the Spiegel Tent, tea dances, a multi-cultural food festival aimed at promoting cohesion between diverse groups of older people, an arts festival and seminars on topics such as employment, volunteering and avoiding scams in later life. In addition, celebrations take place in local areas and at venues offered by partners such as Nottingham Libraries and Nottingham City Homes.
On 1 October 2019, the Leader of Nottingham City Council, Councillor David Mellen, and AFN Champion, Councillor Eunice Campbell-Clark, signed an open letter demonstrating the city’s commitment to reduce age discrimination.
Ageing Well Day
A key annual action for AFN is the Ageing Well Day held in the centre of Nottingham in summer. Over 40 different stalls offer information and advice to people as they age and to their carers. The day emphasises ill health prevention, self-management of conditions and greater awareness of the large amount of support networks that are available. The popularity of the event increases each year and attracts sponsorship from local businesses.
Take a Seat (TAS)
AFN has developed a successful initiative called ‘Take a Seat’ encouraging businesses and organisations across the city to offer a seat to an older person to catch their breath when they were out and about, helping them to remain independent and active in their local communities. Participating premises display a ‘Take a seat’ sticker in the window and are promoted through networks, the AFN ‘Take a Seat’ webpage and by word of mouth. AFN has developed a toolkit for Take a Seat which has been shared with numerous other communities and organisations across England. ‘Take a Seat’ was cited as an example of good practice on the Centre for Ageing Better web site. Future plans include ‘Ay Up Me Duck’ tables in cafés – these will be areas where people can start a friendly conversation with others.. (‘Ay Up Me Duck’ is a local term for ‘Hello’.)
Avoiding Scams and Doorstep Crime
Older citizens are particularly at risk of being scammed, AFN has worked with a range of partners to develop a community model that has been rolled out to local areas.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions and keeping social distance all AFN community face to face initiatives have temporarily ceased. However, all AFN partners have been active in local communities to enable older citizens to access services, help and support during the pandemic and the learning from mobilising volunteering and community response will be included in Local Recovery Plans.Influencing Nottingham’s local democratic process through intergenerational social connectivity.
Improving Intergenerational Social Connectivity across Nottingham
Age Friendly Nottingham has worked in partnership with Nottingham Trent University and other local organisations to bring together younger (16–25) and older (50+) citizens to develop a plan to improve intergenerational social connectivity across Nottingham. This work established an understanding of shared concerns, interests and aspirations, as well as developed ideas to increase the intergenerational voice in influencing the local democratic process and supporting Nottingham City Council’s strategic ambition to ‘put citizens at the heart of everything we do’.
The plan aims to strengthen citizen engagement in local communities, enable understanding and tolerance, influence decision-making and enable learning to be shared with other communities in the network.
Age Friendly Nottingham E-Bulletin
AFN produces a regular e-bulletin which goes out to almost 7,000 subscribers.
Governance
AFN is chaired by Nottingham’s Older Citizens’ Champion and progress is reported to the Nottingham Health and Wellbeing Board. The AFN manager is based in the Public Health Section of Nottingham City Council.