MEETING OF THE NATIONAL FORUM ON AGEING - OLDER PEOPLES CONSULTATIVE FORUM
THURSDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2007 , ROSEBERY HOUSE, EDINBURGH
Attendees :
Kay Hutchison Age Concern Scotland
Barbara Barnes Alzheimer Scotland
Dr Gurudeo Saluja Black and Minority Ethnic Elders Group
Sylvia Murray CoSLA
Jean Elgar Dumfries and Galloway Local Authority
Liz Duncan Help the Aged
George Henderson National Pensioner's Convention Scotland
Diana Findlay Scottish Older Peoples Advisory Group
Elinor McKenzie Scottish Pensioner's Forum
John Wilson Scottish Pensions Association
Irene Sweeney STUC
Martin Brickley West of Scotland Seniors Forum
Dawn Anderson Women's Royal Voluntary Service
John Storey (Chair) Scottish Government, Older People and Age Team
Peter Reid Scottish Government, Older People and Age Team
Brian Nisbet Scottish Government, Older People and Age Team
Neil Rennick Scottish Government, Older People's Unit
1. WELCOME, INTRODUCTIONS
John Storey (Chair) opened the meeting and welcomed everyone including Dawn Anderson, Barbara Barnes and Neil Rennick. We expected to be joined later by Brian McKechnie, University of Strathclyde, Senior Studies Institute, for the paper on the Scottish Centre for Intergenerational Practice.
2. UPDATES ON BUSINESS
The chair then invited updates from members of the group on work their organisations were currently taking forward. The following points were raised.
- The UK day for Older People entitled 'Generation Xperience' is taking place on Monday 1st October 2007. Edinburgh City Council is holding an event at Meadowbank Stadium to mark the day. Events are also taking place in London and elsewhere in the UK.
- Help the Aged are preparing an impact report on the 21 years they have been active in Scotland. Invites to the launch of the document are still to be issued.
- The UK centenary of the pension is next year. NPC felt that the Discrimination Law Review - Framework for Fairness: Proposals for a Single Equality Bill for Great Britain was a disappointing document.
- Age Concern Scotland (ACS) has undertaken a consultation with its members and other stakeholder organisation on its role. Findings suggest that ACS should be more engaged with other Older People's organisations. Members also feel that the organisation should have more of a local focus, 4 regional assemblies are to be established to facilitate this across the country with the hope that this will foster stronger local links with the NHS, local authorities and other bodies. Age Concern Scotland's AGM will be held on 31st October.
- Dumfries and Galloway Council have just established a cross cutting working group which would include the Local Authority, Partners and the Local Community Planning Partnership to look at All Our Futures and how its recommendations should be implemented.
3. ALL OUR FUTURES IMPLEMENTATION - STARTER PAPER 1
John Storey reiterated the commitment given by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Nicola Sturgeon MSP to members of the group on All Our Futures at the previous meeting on 14 August.
Campaign to combat ageism
A discussion began about a meeting several members of the group had attended with the BBC regarding Primetime, which the BBC is developing with the Big Lottery Fund. The aim is to give awards of money to projects aimed at helping older people get together to keep healthy and active, and is due to be screened in Autumn 2008. Points raised during discussion were as follows
- Concerns were expressed about some of the language being used to describe older people.
- The awards under Primetime are too large to appeal to many older people's organisations, as they do not have the man power to deal with awards of £100k +.
- Work should be done to improve the image of carers for older people in the community.
- there could be an opportunity to work along with BBC to challenge stereotypes of older people as part of campaign to combat ageism.
- All Our Futures money is available this year to promote positive images of ageism. Scottish Government officials have held initials meeting with marketing colleagues, and would welcome the involvement of the group.
National Forum on Ageing
The proposal for the Forum was that it would make use of existing networks and would establish short life working groups to undertake specific pieces of work. The following points/actions were made in discussion.
- The National Forum for Ageing would need to have a high profile/status and be relevant across a range of Government departments and Ministerial Portfolios.
- The National Forum would need a defined remit.
- it was suggested that setting outcomes would be beneficial to drive the strategy forward with local authorities, for example..
- A number of options for short-life sub-groups were discussed, in principle, for example a sub-group looking at access to services/provision of services was suggested. This would include consideration of the provision of services for older people in ethnic minorities; and about differences in service provision between different areas. Income maximisation was suggested as another potential sub-group topic.
- It was also suggested that a media/communications sub-group should be established. Volunteers for the group were - John Wilson, Liz Duncan, Martin Brickley, Kay Hutchison, Dawn Anderson, Dr Gurudeo Saluja and Elinor McKenzie.
- Officials agreed that they would circulate a paper to group members which would outline areas within All Our Futures where quick progress could be made. Members would be asked to consider this paper, identify priorities they felt the group could make an early impact on and also ones that they felt were better suited to influence through a period of time.
In terms of other commitments within All Our Futures group members felt that a National Stakeholder event this year would not be beneficial and the general feeling was that an event in early spring 2008 would be more effective and could act a springboard to announce work on the National Forum for Ageing, the Scottish Centre for Intergenerational Practice and the anti ageism campaign. There was a request that a statement should be issued by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing to raise the importance of All Our Futures with local authorities.
4. SCOTTISH CENTRE FOR INTERGENERATION PRACTICE - PAPER 2
Paper 2:2007 on the Intergenerational Centre had been produced by a group of organisations that had been looking independently at proposals for Centre. Their proposal for the Centre co-incided with the commitment to promoting intergenerational activity in All Our Futures and the availability of funding in the current financial year.
Following general discussions amongst the group there was a qualified agreement of the potential for phase 1 of the proposal to test potential models for an Intergenerational Centre, but there was concern that there had not been the opportunity for members of the Forum to discuss the proposals with representatives of the organisations involved. Subsequently a meeting has been arranged between several group members and Brian MacKechnie who helped develop the proposals.
5. DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will be held between 11:30am and 1:30pm on 29 November at Rosebery House, with lunch provided.
Older People and Age Team October 2007