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Joined-up approach needed to deal with the UK’s ageing population

A shift in attitudes and a more coherent care system is needed to tackle the UK’s ageing population, the Pensions and Ageing Society Minister told a conference yesterday.

Speaking at GovNet Communication’s Ageing Population Conference , Angela Eagle MP said that services for an ageing society need to be ‘re-engineered’.

In the UK there are now more people over 65 years of age than under-16 with this trend expected to grow. Eagle said this should be celebrated rather than seen as a ‘black cloud’ over the country.

‘We have to put older people at the centre of what we do and put them in control. What is it like to be older? It’s important when we think about policy making that we think about re-engineering society’ she commented.

The debate around the National Care Service is very important, which is why the Minister also told delegates: ‘We are in the middle of shifting away from getting people in to nursing homes. I accept the longer you can keep people supported in their homes, the better, and can also prevent the need for nursing care. We have to re-engineer our services. We have to realise we have an ad-hoc system and we have to turn it into one that is much more coherent’.

Eagle also called for a stop to ‘cliff edge’ retirement and wants to see a different approach where people coming up to retirement downsize their workload, rather than just finish.

Dame Jo Williams CBE, the interim Chair of the Care Quality Commission also called for joined-up healthcare. In its first year, the commission has so far focused on improvement and making sure people who experience services get a good and safe provision.

She said: ‘An approach that focuses on the individuals, carers and families is needed. There is a need for joined-up care. We have to ask how partnerships can deliver person centred care. There has been good progress but lots still to do in terms of cultural change.’

Delegates at the event also heard from the Department of Health about moving away from a hospital model of healthcare and working with patients who want to help themselves, including a number of on-going trials and integrated care pilots.

Gary Belfield, Acting Director General for Commissioning and System Management at the Department of Health, said: ‘We have to keep up with society –successful PCT’s in the country are doing things in partnership with the voluntary sector, clinicians and local community about how services meet change. There is health inequality in the country and we need to level it up. We are in this together. If we can work in partnership we can transform people’s lives'.

Other areas highlighted at the conference included state pension reform, fuel poverty and Hampshire’s innovative Dementia Advisory Service.