South Tyneside now has a dedicated Age Friendly Strategy and Action Plan in place (2024-2028). This was developed using the recommended four-stage process, whereby we undertook the baseline survey, held four separate validation events to confirm these findings, then brought professional colleagues together to look at how these findings align with other key policies and programmes of work.
The age friendly strategy aligns well with the overarching council priorities which are financially secure, healthy and well, connected to jobs, part of a strong community and targeted to make things fairer. The strategy also aligns with the Health & Wellbeing Board priorities which are good mental health, financially secure, safe & healthy places to live, learn and work, as a good start to life.
The age friendly strategy also makes reference to the Long Term Plan for the National Health Service (NHS) and the Health in an Ageing Society Report, written by Chris Whitty as the Chief Medical Officer.
By bringing together key partners and programmes of work that are already in place, or being worked towards, South Tyneside has been able to align the action plan with the eight WHO age friendly themes.
The Steering Group meets every six weeks. Each meeting focuses on a different age friendly theme, the leads for the actions from that theme are asked to present a progress report to the group. Each autumn the leads complete a progress template, which feeds into a dedicated annual event during October. This event is the basis for an annual report which is presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board, then Full Council.