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Age-Friendly Futures Summit (March 2025)
Between March 25-27, we hosted the Age-Friendly Futures Summit at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce. The three-day summit brought together over 250 leaders, policymakers, practitioners and researchers, working on the ageing agenda from Greater Manchester, across the UK and around the globe. It was made up of interconnected events, delivered by a partnership of the Centre for Ageing Better, the World Health Organisation (WHO), Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Manchester Metropolitan University and University of Manchester.
Following the themes of advancing, leading and creating, day one of the summit, considered how research can advance action by partnering with policymakers and older citizens to make urban environments better places to grow old. Day two built on the insights from day one, showcasing the work of the Ageing Hub and its partners. While the morning panels focused on cross-sector collaboration, the meaningful leadership and engagement of older adults, and the role older people can play in driving economic growth and development, the afternoon workshops highlighted the age-friendly work happening across Greater Manchester. Workshops covered age-friendly housing and employment, falls prevention, mental health, community-led action and walking audits to create age-friendly environments.
Speakers provided insights from their experiences working within Greater Manchester, working nationally on this agenda, and from their respective countries working on age-friendly programmes across the globe.
The event also hosted a session with the World Health Organisation to help shape the development of the WHO European Strategy on Ageing is Living: Promoting Lifelong Health and Well-being (2026–2030).
As part of the summit, Centre for Ageing Better hosted a launch event for their State of Ageing report (external link). This year’s report shows the impact of regional inequalities that determine the quality of people’s later life. The summary report and the accompanying chapters (external link) draw attention to the disparities in resources, opportunities and outcomes that exist between different geographic areas – whether regions or local authorities. The report calls for the government to take inequalities in ageing seriously and address the lack of political focus that has meant chronic underinvestment in helping people to age well. It also highlights the need to address the pervasive ageism in society that produces negative and distorted views of ageing and older people. By doing this, we can properly value and benefit from the contributions of older people to our society.
The final day of the summit started with a 'next steps' session, where attendees came together to reflect on the learning and insights over the past two days and started drafting a summit statement. More on this to come! Centre for Ageing Better then hosted their sixth annual conference of the UK Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities to round up the three-day event.
Thank you to all who attended the Age-Friendly Futures Summit. We hope the event created a foundation on which to build capacity, knowledge and skills to advance, lead and create age-friendly programmes in the UK, Europe and elsewhere.
You can watch a short video of the Summit on YouTube (external link).
Andy Burnham delivers keynote speech at the International Longevity Centre UK's "Future of Ageing" conference (February 2025)
On 6 February 2025, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham delivered a virtual keynote speech at the Future of Ageing (external link) conference.
During his speech, the Mayor emphasised the importance of approaching policymaking “from the bottom up”, alongside residents and communities to shape policy.
The Mayor highlighted how “the arrival of devolution in England allows us to take a whole-person, whole-place perspective. It lets us rethink the architecture of the British state and how we use public money to support people in living well, especially in later life. It opens up a more preventative, person-centred approach, which we're trying to pioneer in Greater Manchester.”
The Mayor’s speech outlined the broader thinking that underpins work in Greater Manchester, such as changing our approach to housing by adopting the philosophy of “housing first (external link)”, creating stronger and safer communities that promote mobility (physical, social, and connectivity), and launching a Live Well (external link) service. He outlined how Live Well will “rethink the support available to our residents to help them live good lives, connect with each other in communities, and move forward”.
Throughout his speech, the Mayor recognised the need to “support people to adapt their homes to live independently as long as possible” and the importance of age-friendly transport alongside this. He equally discussed the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter (external link) and how “we're recognising what good work looks like for people in their 50s, 60s, and even into their 70s”, such as flexible working arrangements. Further, the Mayor shared his belief “in using adult education flexibilities to help older people pivot towards new areas of the Greater Manchester economy”, where “greater devolution of employment support would enable this approach”.
Read more about Andy Burnham’s speech (external link).
Ageing in Place Pathfinder Year Two Learning Event (October 2024)
On 30 October we held our Ageing in Place Year Two Event at Friends Meeting House in Central Manchester, with over 100 attendees!
It was a brilliant event filled with stories of change of how the Pathfinder has enabled hearing the voices of the people that live in our communities, with our panel hosts describing this as feeling ‘heard’ and really being able to see the change in their communities. Our attendees were ignited with passion and pride for the work taking place in each of our 10 Ageing in Place neighbourhoods across Greater Manchester. At the event we also considered how we can embed the work in future agendas to ensure sustained growth and scale.
The event also aligned with the launch of our Ageing in Place Annual Report (external link). The report highlights the achievements, learning and activity of the Greater Manchester Ageing in Place Pathfinder. It is a story of the energy and commitment we have seen in all of our Pathfinder Partnerships and the work of the Pathfinder Lead Organisations to develop and anchor our resident-led Partnerships in ten neighbourhoods across Greater Manchester. They highlight how we have been working with partners across Greater Manchester to learn, develop our plan to sustain and scale and deliver an innovative neighbourhood approach to ageing well and tackling inequalities in ageing across our city-region.
During the event, we shared a film developed with one of our Pathfinder partnerships in Tameside, which showed the impact of digital inclusion for a resident in Ridgehill named Irene. The film about digital inclusion work in Tameside is available to watch online (external link).
The GMCA Comms Team kindly supported our Ageing in Place Year Two Event by creating a short film of the day (external link).
Find out more about the work of the Ageing in Place Pathfinder.
Andy Burnham attends the Silver Economy Forum 2024 (October 2024)
On 16 October, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, attended the Silver Economy Forum 2024 in Berlin.
This event is organised by the Global Coalition on Aging (external website) and convenes top-level decision-makers in government, business, research, NGO’s, global institutions, and academia from around the globe. Inspired by the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing, 2020-2030, the Silver Economy Forum brings together leaders for critical discussion, informational presentations, and actionable programmes and policies to positively impact ageing populations around the world and the global economy.
The Mayor took part in a panel called “Learning from Europe and Asia’s Ageing Societies”, alongside leaders from Germany and China. During this panel, he was asked two questions:
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How is Greater Manchester adapting to the impact of demographic change in the workforce as part of achieving economic growth in the region?
The Mayor discussed the need to support people into work to maintain social connections, support health in later life, but also because it is an economic necessity. He highlighted how Greater Manchester is growing faster than the UK economy, that it has previously been the fastest digital growth city-region, and that it is mission critical to have policies around older people in the workplace. The Mayor emphasised two interventions that have been implemented: the Good Employment Charter (external link) - and the age-friendly employer toolkit within this Charter for employers to increase flexibility and adjustments in the workplace for carers - and conversion courses for older workers; thinking differently about employment support to allow older workers to pivot into digital or tech industries.
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How is Greater Manchester tackling the barriers to healthy ageing through a place-based approach?
The Mayor made the case that more devolved power would be key. He also recognised the need to look at new models of support. For example, what we have seen in the Ageing in Place Pathfinder working with defined communities, asking older people what makes a place age- friendly, and that this work has to be bottom-up and cut across different sectors. He also highlighted Greater Manchester as a Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia with its dementia cafés offering a real transformation to people with dementia (external link). Throughout the panel, he recognised the issues with the over-medicalisation of ageing and recognised the need to think “social not medical first” when adapting to an ageing society. The Mayor identified that tackling this barrier of the over-medicalisation of ageing could be achieved through the Live Well (external link) ambition for Greater Manchester.
You can watch the Silver Economy Forum online (external link). The Mayor's panel starts at 2:37.
International Day of Older People: Highlights (October 2024)
This month we celebrated International Day of Older People (IDOP). Across Greater Manchester, people and partners came together to celebrate the day. Here are some of the highlights:
- Manchester City Council’s age-friendly team shared “They call us Baby Boomers: a manifesto”, written and performed by the Greater Manchester Older People’s Board. You can watch the video in full on YouTube (external link).
- Our Ageing in Place Pathfinder shared a poem performed by Mary, one of the residents engaged in the programme. The poem is about the importance of place to people as they age. You can watch the poem on Youtube (external link).
- Bury Council’s age-friendly team set up an IDOP stand at The Rock to give advice around health, wellbeing and staying well, Pension Credit and other benefits, and housing:
- Manchester and Trafford’s African Caribbean Care Group held an IDOP event which involved a quiz, an Untold Orchestra performance, and a tree celebrating things people are proud of:
- Age UK Stockport celebrated IDOP at their Hub in Edgeley and continued celebrations later in the week at Stockport College:
- Age UK Trafford held their own IDOP event with entertainment from The Daydream Believers, a buffet and a special appearance from The Mayor of Trafford. Everyone in attendance came away with information on Pension Credit, a free Electric Blanket and full bellies:
Lots more events and celebrations took place across Greater Manchester, including buildings being lit up in purple to mark the day:
If you would like your IDOP event or celebration to be featured on our website, do not hesitate to get in touch by emailing sara.griffiths@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk.
International Day of Older People (October 2024)
October 1 is International Day of Older People (IDOP)!
Each year, this day is recognised internationally to highlight the opportunities and challenges faced by our ageing populations. Across Greater Manchester, there are a number of exciting events and activities taking place throughout the week to mark the occasion.
At the GM Ageing Hub, we have compiled a list of activities and events taking place in a number of localities around Greater Manchester. You can find this list below, with links to further information around how to sign up for or attend the events.
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BURY:
- Persona (Get Social): Tuesday 1 October, Persona Care have a morning session booked in for people they support to discuss and create a poem about inspirational older people, whether that be someone they have met at Get Social (external link), or a famous person. In the afternoon, they are holding a party to show that later life is for living and coming together with a local group of performers, called the ‘Honey Badgers’ they are made up of retired people who enjoy music and want to give back to the community.
- The FED: Throughout the day (Tuesday 1 October) The FED (external link) will be sharing words of wisdom and advice on their elder bench, where their residents will be invited to share their knowledge and Wisdom with the younger generation, staff, visitors etc. They are planning a day of music in their activity centre. In the morning, they will be having their weekly sing-along hosted by their volunteers from 10.30-12. Their afternoon session will be a concert and afternoon/tea party from 2-4pm.
ROCHDALE:
Your Trust
- Free Functional Fitness Course (external link) (10 week Course) is starting on 24 September and runs over both IDOP and Falls Prevention Week.
- Lots of other planned activities and sessions available on the Your Trust website (external link).
Kashmir Youth Project (external link) (KYP)
- Tuesday 1 October – Ladies Group planned trip to Bradford (for group members only).
- Wednesday 2 October – Group tour for Men’s Luncheon Club to Rochdale Leisure centre (open for all).
- Thursday 10 October - World Mental Health Day at KYP (open for all).
Living Well Rochdale, The Big Life Group
- Tuesday 1 October – Launch of Stoptober Month Events at Number One Riverside, Smith Street, Rochdale, from 10am – 3.00pm. Leaflets which promote the Chatters Service and the Health walks will also be distributed at the launch event.
HMR CIRCLE
- Tuesday 1 October, 00pm - Your Music in Mind Music Café (Music Champion Induction)- The UK most relentlessly pioneering orchestra, Manchester Camerata, is expanding its sector changing Music in Mind project for people living with dementia and their carers. Camerata, partnering with HMR Circle will be hosting two free Music Cafés for people living with dementia and their carers to attend. For more information please visit HMR Circle (external link).
STOCKPORT:
- Queens Court (external link) in Marple invite you to join their guest speaker Danny, from Age UK, to find out more about health & fitness events taking place in the Stockport area. Join in with some simple armchair exercises to help keep you mobile & independent. This event will be held Wednesday 2 October, 10am-12pm at Queens Court. You can contact Sarah on 07800 618639 for further information.
- Queens Gardens (external link) in Cheadle invite you to join Helen for a delicious, healthy lunch & a chat, to find out more about health & fitness events taking place in the Stockport area. This will be followed by a few games of Bingo, run by the tenants at Queens Gardens. This event will be held Tuesday 1 October, 12-2pm at Queens Gardens. You can contact Helen on 07890 897932 for more information. Cost per person for the lunch is £4.00.
- Stockport’s Ageing in Place Pathfinder area (Brinnington) is hosting an IDOP celebration event on Tuesday 1 October, 1-3pm at The Lighthouse Centre (8, Northumberland Road, Stockport SK5 8LS). There will be a live band and a hot pot! Cost per person is £5.00.
- Age UK Stockport are hosting an age-friendly networking meeting on Tuesday 1 October, 10:30am – 12:30pm at the Hub in Edgeley (external link). There will be talks from Suzie Cloves who has made a sonic augmented reality trail in Edgeley, and James Wilson from Starting Point about digital support in Stockport. This event will also include the launch of Public Health Stockport’s engagement phase for the Age-friendly Action Plan. Everyone in Stockport is invited to get engaged and contribute their thoughts to the emerging plan over the next 2.5 months.There will also be cake and celebrations!
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On Wednesday 2 October 1-3pm, Age UK Stockport will also be celebrating IDOP with the students at Stockport College. Welcome Wednesday activities, including afternoon tea. If you would like to come along to either or both events at the Hub, please call 0161 480 12 11 or email info@ageukstockport.org.uk to book your place.
TAMESIDE:
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Tameside’s Ageing in Place Pathfinder area (Ridgehill) is holding an event for IDOP on Wednesday 2 October. The event is from 10-2pm at the Baptist Church, (24 Ambleside, Stalybridge, Greater Manchester England, SK15 1EB). There will be various activities taking place, including a chair-based exercise session, an intergenerational activity with local schoolchildren, and soup and a roll will be offered at lunch. The schoolchildren have created audio trails linked to a local greenspace, and the children will be showcasing them to the residents. There is also a planned art activity that the older people and the children will work together on regarding the activation of local greenspace.
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Adult Services have been working with Welfare Rights to create a roadshow for Pension Credit Uptake this Autumn. The Pension Credit Uptake Roadshow (external link) will launch on 1 October at The Together Centre, Loxley House (287 Birch Lane, Dukinfield, Tameside SK16 5AU). The roadshow will take place between 12-2pm and will be staffed and managed by the Welfare Rights team, and the comms and photo shoot for the Pension Credit Uptake Roadshow launch will be done by the Comms team.
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Age UK Tameside is providing free tea and cake on Tuesday 1 October to celebrate IDOP. Tea and cake is free for those aged 50+ and a small donation is requested for those below age 50. You can find the tea and cake at 131 Katherine Street, Ashton-Under-Lyne, OL6 7AW. For more details, please contact 0161 308 5000.
TRAFFORD:
- Age UK Trafford are holding an event on Monday 30 September – at Urmston HQ (external link) with a buffet and musical entertainment. They will also be providing information on pension credit and offering benefit checks.
- The African Caribbean Care Group are holding an event on Tuesday 1 October, 10:30-3pm, at the Claremont Centre (external link). They will be starting the day with an introduction to IDOP and the theme for this year. Attendees can then get involved in some Tai Chi which is suitable for all levels of mobility. Before lunch, there will be a fun quiz with prizes that has a focus on age and the contributions made by older adults to our society. After lunch, they will have a musical performance from members of The Untold Orchestra and a craft exercise that encourages service users to identify things they are proud of.
Reimagining Age-Friendly Communities – Urban Ageing and Spatial Justice (September 2024)
There is an exciting new publication in the age-friendly space! Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group (MUARG) have recently published their new book 'Reimagining Age-Friendly Communities – Urban Ageing and Spatial Justice'.
Read the publication online (external website)
MUARG are researchers from various disciplinary backgrounds who work on a range of themes which connect ageing societies with various dimensions of urban change.
The publication includes a chapter by the head of the GM Ageing Hub, Paul McGarry, who was asked to contribute to the book, and who is a member of MUARG.
The book is largely based on work in Greater Manchester over the last 20 years from a range of leading researchers who work closely with the Ageing Hub. The publication considers how to design, develop and adapt urban environments to better meet the needs and aspirations of an increasingly diverse ageing population.
This edited collection offers a new approach to understanding the opportunities and challenges of creating ‘age-friendly’ communities in the context of urban change. Drawing together insights from leading voices across a range of disciplines, the book emphasises the urgent need to address inequalities that shape the experience of ageing in urban environments. It also combines a focus on social justice, equity, diversity, and co-production to enhance urban life. Exploring a range of age-friendly community projects, contributors demonstrate that, despite structural obstacles, meaningful social change is achievable at a local level.
Ageing in Place Pathfinder residents have their say on Vision Zero (August 2024)
At the end of June and beginning of July, residents engaged in our Ageing in Place Pathfinder took part in focus groups to help shape Vision Zero Greater Manchester - our city-region’s plan to improve road safety and eradicate death and life-changing injury from our roads by 2040.
Older residents from Ridgehill in Tameside and Little Lever in Bolton were asked for their views on the Vision Zero draft Action Plan, which sets out how road safety partners will reduce road casualties and ensure equitable mobility for all.
Residents in Little Lever taking part in the Vision Zero focus group
Residents raised issues such as speeding, blind corners, pavement parking, street lighting and overhanging branches at the sessions. Some of the points raised were consistent with issues that residents have highlighted while developing their local Ageing in Place Action Plans.
The Ageing in Place Pathfinder is working in 10 neighbourhoods across Greater Manchester to make sure the voices of residents in mid and later life are heard and valued in the places they live. In each of these neighbourhoods, a resident-led partnership is supported by a lead organisation and works with local stakeholders to agree and prioritise ways to improve the quality of life for residents as they grow older. Local transport is an important issue for many older residents, including public transport and active travel. In some neighbourhoods, they have been completing walking and wheeling audits to identify localised improvements to getting about in their neighbourhoods.
Find out more about the work in the Ageing in Place Pathfinder
The Vision Zero team, who are part of Transport for Greater Manchester, will now collate this feedback with other responses they have received from Greater Manchester residents before the final Vision Zero Action Plan is published in November.
The State of Ageing Greater Manchester report launch and Strategy Briefing event! (February 2023)
Join us online on February 29th for the launch of the State of Ageing in Greater Manchester Report and get briefed on the upcoming GM Age-Friendly Strategy.
The State of Ageing in Greater Manchester Report is a collation of the most relevant and contemporary data and evidence on ageing in Greater Manchester. On February 29th, we will be officially launching the State of Ageing report. Attendees will hear about the most relevant and contemporary data and evidence on ageing in Greater Manchester and gain valuable knowledge to shape policies and initiatives.
At the same event, we will be providing a public briefing on the upcoming Greater Manchester Age-Friendly Strategy 2024-2034 – a ten-year plan to get GM to a place where older people’s needs are heard, understood, and responded to more strongly than ever before. The strategy's full public release is scheduled for Spring 2024, and at this event we will be briefing attendees on the strategy's progress and how it will create a roadmap to a future where ageing is considered in every decision made to improve our region.
This event is a unique opportunity to connect with experts, policymakers, and community leaders, all working towards creating an age-friendly Greater Manchester. Don't miss out on this informative and engaging event!
Attendees can expect to hear from senior leaders in Greater Manchester and the World Health Organisation, older Greater Manchester residents, and colleagues from the Ageing Hub.
Book onto the event here (External Link): The State of Ageing in GM Report launch and Strategy Briefing Tickets, Thu 29 Feb 2024 at 16:00 | Eventbrite
Ageing Hub and Independent Age offer free online training sessions on Pension Credit and Attendance Allowance (September 2023)
Do you regularly talk to people of State Pension Age? Could you help an older person check that they are getting all the benefits they are entitled to?
Throughout September and October, national charity Independent Age are offering short introductory sessions on Pension Credit and Attendance Allowance to the Greater Manchester workforce via a partnership with the Greater Manchester Ageing Hub.
Colleagues who are frontline workers and volunteers are encouraged to sign up for a free 75-minute online training session.
Approximately £70 million worth of Pension Credit goes unclaimed each year in Greater Manchester alone, with around 36,000 eligible households missing out on the additional regular income.
Provided by an experienced welfare rights adviser, the sessions will also demonstrate how to use the online benefits calculator Entitled to Benefit (external website) – a free tool that signposts individuals to the support they can claim based on their circumstances.
This course is aimed at those who don’t work in welfare benefit advice roles. Up to 31 October, 14 training sessions are on offer with 35 places on each course.
By the end of the session you will be able to:
- Explain what Pension Credit is, who may be eligible and how to claim
- Explain what Attendance Allowance is, who may be eligible and how to claim
- Know when to ask for or signpost to specialist advice
- Use the online benefits calculator to enable someone see if they are missing out on benefits
- Use strategies for starting the conversation about claiming benefits with people that you work with
Sessions are currently available from 7 September – 31 October.
Book your place: Independent Age Events | Eventbrite (external website)
Paul McGarry wins outstanding achievement award (July 2023)
Head of Great Manchester Ageing Hub Paul McGarry has won the British Society of Gerontology’s Outstanding Achievement Award (external website) for 2023.
The award is the society’s biggest honour and is given to individuals who have made a significant and lasting contribution to gerontological understanding of ageing, or to improving the lives of older people. Gerontology is the study of the biological, psychological, and social impacts of ageing.
Paul was formally announced as the winner on the first day of the British Society of Gerontology’s annual conference at the University of East Anglia on Wednesday 5 July.
Since taking up his role in May 2017, Paul has worked on several projects including the Pension Top Up campaign, which generated more than £3 million of additional income for older residents in Greater Manchester (GM), the Winterwise campaign, which saw 300,000 booklets of important information and advice delivered to older people across GM, and the Ageing in Place Pathfinder, which is currently investing £4million into local communities over a three-year period to ensure older people’s voices are heard and valued in the places that they live.
This is the second award Paul has won over the past 12 months following his recognition as part of the Healthy Ageing 50 in October. The Healthy Ageing 50 is a UN Decade of Healthy Ageing initiative that honours 50 leaders who are working to foster healthy ageing.
New book highlights challenges of everyday life under Covid-19 (June 2023)
Older people were disproportionately affected by the emergence and spread of COVID-19, whether in hospitals, the community, or in care homes. A new book – COVID-19, Inequality and Older People: Everyday Life during the Pandemic – explores some of the challenges faced by different groups of older people over the course of 2020 and 2021, together with the community organisations working on their behalf.
Strategies to control COVID-19 led to various forms of exclusion affecting all age groups, but raised particular issues for older people, for example, the effects of social distancing, digital exclusion, loss of access to community support, and social isolation. Ethnic inequalities were a feature throughout all waves of the pandemic, with certain groups – for example, those from the Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities – experiencing very high rates of death from COVID-19.
COVID-19, Inequality and Older People: Everyday Life during the Pandemic describes the experiences of different groups of older people living in 30 neighbourhoods across Greater Manchester. It highlights both the challenges that people faced and the extraordinary resilience that people demonstrated in coping with a major crisis that affected many aspects of daily life.
Communities felt the impact of inequalities but also demonstrated ways of mobilising support to help those most affected by COVID-19. Community organisations across Greater Manchester played a vital role in developing new activities including meal deliveries, IT assistance, telephone befriending schemes, and bereavement counselling.
However, evidence suggests that neighbourhoods and the different groups within them have been at the receiving end of actions to combat COVID-19, rather than being treated as equal partners.
The impact of COVID-19 has been exacerbated by dramatic rises in the price of energy and fuel. This has hit those who live in low-income communities, and those from ethnic minority backgrounds who tend to be poorer, have lower pensions, live in overcrowded housing, and are often in poorer health, the hardest.
The book concludes by arguing for ‘community-centred’ strategies to support people in the likelihood of future pandemics. These strategies focused on: ensuring community organisations have the necessary resources to support vulnerable groups, re-opening community facilities closed through the impact of austerity on local authority budgets, recruiting community advocates to speak on behalf of individuals and/or groups at risk of discrimination from accessing services and finally, promoting digital inclusion through training and support for older people as well as reviewing the costs as well as benefits of moving services online.
COVID-19, Inequality and Older People: Everyday Life during the Pandemic. Camilla Lewis, Chris Phillipson, Sophie Yarker and Luciana Lang, Policy Press, 2023. Available as a free download:
Greater Manchester launches new video to support people to do digital in later life (May 2023)
A new video has been launched to support more older people to get online and benefit from doing digital in later life.
Research shows that many older people benefit from support and guidance from someone close to them to get online or use digital devices. In Greater Manchester 93,000 over 75s are digital excluded, with a third never having used the internet.
In May 2022, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and The Good Things Foundation joined forces to produce a brand-new resource – ‘Doing Digital in Later Life: a practical guide’. The guide is designed for anyone from relatives and friends to carers and front-line workers to help them get started and support someone they know to do digital in later life.
The guide was initially launched following Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham re-election, where he announced ambitions for Greater Manchester to become one of the first city-regions in the world to equip all over-75s with the skills, connectivity and technology to get online.
This new video reinforces that there’s no one size fits all when it comes to going digital in later life. You don’t need to be a technical whizz to help an older person do things online – being patient and encouraging is what matters most, something we can all do.
The animated video version of the Doing Digital in Later Life guide will be another tool our people and organisations across the region can use to support older people in their digital journey.
Watch Doing Digital in Later Life: a practical guide animation on YouTube (external website)
Winterwise campaign launch (November 2022)
As the costs of energy, food and other bills continues to rise, the coming months are expected to be difficult for many older residents across the city-region.
With many older residents digitally excluded, Greater Manchester Ageing Hub has partnered with national older person’s charity Independent Age to produce a new printed information guide called ‘Winterwise - a guide to keeping well this winter’.
More than 325K printed guides are being distributed across Greater Manchester from mid-November 2022. The guide brings together key information for older people on cost of living support with messages focusing on three themes - ‘Stay warm’, ‘Stay safe’ and ‘Stay well’.
The guide builds on the Greater Manchester Pension Top Up campaign, also delivered with Independent Age, which encourages older residents to check they are getting all their financial entitlements, including support for energy costs. In Greater Manchester, £70 million goes unclaimed each year just in Pension Credit, with many older residents missing out on Attendance Allowance, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit, and other entitlements which could make a massive difference to their weekly income.
With support from Talking About My Generation – the first older person’s led newsroom in the UK, a video has been produced with older residents in Greater Manchester to promote the guide. Please find the video in this YouTube link.
To get a physical copy for yourself, your loved ones or older people you are supporting, please look out for local distributions such as at libraries, pharmacies, warm hubs and more, or call Independent Age on 0800 319 6789. You could also call your local council’s dedicated cost of living phone line for more advice and support. If you’d like copies of the Winterwise guide (in multiples of 88 per box), please email jo.garsden@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk
The online version is available on GMCA’s website
Doing digital in later life: a practical guide (November 2022)
In May 2022, the Greater Manchester Ageing Hub and Good Things Foundation launched ‘Doing Digital in Later Life: a practical cuide’ to support more older people to get online and benefit from using digital devices.
As we move into the winter months, doing digital can help older residents in Greater Manchester keep well. Ordering grocery deliveries and repeat prescriptions online, getting to grips with digital heating systems or smart devices, and keeping connected with family and friends online can all help an older person stay connected and independent. This guide is aimed at family, friends and frontline workers who want to support an older person take their next step on digital.
The guide has been used across Greater Manchester by people like Liz, a volunteer at the Wigan’s TechMates, who has found it to be a great resource: Case Study: TechMates support residents doing digital in later life - Greater Manchester Combined Authority (greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk)
Download doing digital in later life: a practical guide
The Greater Manchester Ageing Well Workshop (October 2022)
The Ageing Well team in Greater Manchester recently came together at a workshop to share their ambition of creating a ‘Greater Manchester Ageing Well approach’ for the system.
At the Ageing Hub we are bringing the age-friendly approach to ageing well with the wider NHS programmes, to develop system wide outcomes to support older people to age well in place.
We are working towards a change in approach to health and social care to ensure that we have a more proactive care system in the right place, working to prevent poor outcomes through healthy and active ageing within a place, building on existing community-based age-friendly initiatives; and finally working towards quality improvement in existing acute and community services ensuring people get the right care when they need it.
The Ageing Well programme provides us with an opportunity to bring together primary care, social care, public health, age-friendly neighbourhood teams and specialist NHS trusts to support the shift towards prevention and create the conditions for older people to age well in place across Greater Manchester.
The workshop was a success, with a wide range of stakeholders from across the system attending, including older people, NHS, housing, transport, employment, physical activity, mental health plus many others.
There were some key themes which emerged from the day which will help shape this work as move forward to co-design shared outcomes for the system. You can see these themes in the image below. Some of the themes included falls prevention, how we use data to better target key populations, co-production, reducing inequalities and digital exclusion just to name a few.
We are committed to bringing the Ageing Well Eco-system back together in the very near future to continue the development of this work.
For any further information on this work, please email: Bethany Mitchell (Ageing Well Programme Manager, GMCA)
Paul McGarry recognised as part of 'Healthy Ageing 50 Award' (October 2022)
Paul McGarry, Head of the Greater Manchester Ageing Hub, has been recognised as part of the Healthy Ageing 50!
The Healthy Ageing 50 is a UN Decade of Healthy Ageing initiative that seeks to honour 50 leaders who are working to foster healthy ageing. The individuals were evaluated by an expert panel of reviewers from across international organisations with over 500 nominations received across all Sustainable Development Goal regions.
The award aims to inspire others by celebrating individuals (not their organisations nor affiliated entities) around the world who are aiming to improve the lives of current and future generations of older people.
Paul was nominated for the award in recognition of his decades-long work on healthy ageing in Greater Manchester. Since 2003, Paul has led multi-agency urban ageing partnerships to develop pioneering approaches to increasing the power and influence of older people within local government and related institutions.
In 2016 he was appointed as the Head of the Greater Manchester Ageing Hub and has been keen on developing age-friendly environments across Greater Manchester, influencing in the process work on healthy ageing issues amongst the ten local authorities.
In addition, Paul has had a number of journal articles on ageing published, and given presentations to high-profile events in the USA, Asian, Europe and Australia.
Find out more about Paul’s achievements on Decade of Healthy Ageing’s website.
‘Beyond Older Age’: New project helping researchers and practitioners to understand the everyday lives of older people (October 2022)
A new project, launched on International Day of Older Persons 2022 and led by Dr Amy Barron, Lecturer in Social and Cultural Geography at the University of Manchester, demonstrates how researchers and policy practitioners can generate rich material to better represent the lives of older people through the release of a booklet and animation.
The project advocates using an immersive, participatory, flexible and creative approach. Such an approach will help policy practitioners and academics to better understand the diversity of experiences which comprise ‘older age’.
Working with partner organisations across GM who aspire to make places more age-friendly (World Health Organisation), the project demonstrates how creative, participatory approaches can: i) offer inclusive approaches for researching with diverse older populations; ii) foreground the relations between individual ageing processes and cities; iii) create a living archive of everyday life that is of significance to policy and interested residents.
The project has culminated in a booklet, ‘Beyond Older Age: Approaches to Understand the Diverse Lives of Older People’, which showcases the different ways older age is lived in GM, and an accompanying animation. Endorsed, co-badged and disseminated by project partners, the booklet includes material from a photo and story collection Manchester University co-produced with older Greater Manchester residents.
The booklet also details how policy communities and academics can use a more creative, participatory approach when working with older people, and introduces a selection of methods that might be used. It argues that such an approach can be used to better represent older people’s lives in policy and research: something pivotal to the creation of age-friendly cities.
The project responds to calls from the Greater Manchester Ageing Hub about the need for new, innovative methods with regards to co-production. By showcasing how older age is experienced differently, the project responds to research and campaigns which have identified that representations of older age often fall back on medicalised, stereotypical accounts of what constitutes older lives.
Virginia Tandy, Director of The Creative Ageing Development Agency, said:
This booklet offers great insight into the diversity of life experience amongst older people and some practical and effective research methods. It also highlights the central importance of social connection and agency to ageing well.
‘Beyond Older Age: Approaches to Understand the Diverse Lives of Older People’ - Amy Barron website
Animated summary about the project (YouTube video)
Article Published: 26/09/2022 11:20 AM