How can we improve the experience of ageing?

Transform Ageing is our new partnership between health and social care professionals, social entrepreneurs and the public aiming to tackle the growing concern of how best to develop sustainable later-life care, and improve the experience of ageing at the same time.  

One of the triumphs of the previous century – a vastly improved life expectancy – looks set to be one of the great challenges of this one. Today, for the first time in history, Britain’s over-65s outnumber people under the age of 16. By 2020, it’s predicted that almost half of the adult population will be over 50. It’s not just that people are living longer; people are living longer with increasingly complex health conditions, putting pressure on an already stretched health and social care system. Meanwhile, the number of people of working age will stagnate or shrink, causing gaps in the job market and further pressure on public finances.

Transform Ageing is our new cross-sector initiative. It brings together people in later life, social entrepreneurs and health and social care leaders to define, develop and deliver innovative new solutions that support the needs and aspirations of people in later life. Ultimately, its goal is to help design a better experience of ageing, for everyone. 

It’s not just that people are living longer; people are living longer with increasingly complex health conditions, putting pressure on an already stretched health and social care system.

Last summer, the Big Lottery Fund saw the potential in our ambition, and the programme received £3.65m. Design Council will be working alongside UnLtd, the South West Academic Health Science Network and the Centre for Ageing Better. We've just recruited delivery organisations to get the programme off the ground in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, directly connecting with local people to help shape and design solutions.

Transform Ageing will help local communities to take charge of their care needs.

Through first-class research, collaborative working and rigorous design, Transform Ageing will help local communities to take charge of their care needs. By directly engaging with local people we can identify the key health and social care challenges they face. In turn, care leaders and social entrepreneurs can combine to generate tangible, creative and lasting solutions to meet the needs of the south-west. These, we hope, can then be adapted and rolled out elsewhere in the UK – and beyond.

We must start by breaking down the barriers between different stakeholder groups and involving everyone from the outset. This creates collaborative environments that encourage a user-led approach. Not least, we must help health and social care leaders find opportunities to try new ideas while managing risk, and help them to understand the core design principle that ‘iteration’ does not necessarily mean ‘failure’.

It’s essential to support commissioners to feel more confident in incorporating new services and interventions into mainstream care supply chains, and social entrepreneurs to scale their solutions and provide evidence of their impact to enable them to be commissioned.

This programme has the potential to deliver new, scalable and sustainable solutions that meet the needs and aspirations of our ageing communities across the UK. It could make a real difference to people in their later lives.

Rt Hon Prof Paul Burstow, former Minister of State for Care

The programme has been welcomed by health and social care leaders as an important step in improving services for people in later life. ​Rt Hon Prof Paul Burstow, former Minister of State for Care, said: “Transform Ageing offers a practical approach to making communities in the south-west more age-ready. Using design innovation that starts with the experience of people in their later lives and taps into the energy of social entrepreneurs and the insight of health and local government to devise practical solutions. Above all, this programme has the potential to deliver new, scalable and sustainable solutions that meet the needs and aspirations of our ageing communities across the UK. It could make a real difference to people in their later lives.”

In order to do this, local communities, individuals, carers, family, friends and professionals in each of these regions need to be at the heart of the process. It is the Transform Ageing partnership’s job to work with local organisations to make that happen. We believe that cross-sector collaboration will bring about a health and care system that is more personalised, more connected and, above all, more preventative.

Our vision is that by creating services better aligned to real-life needs and issues, everyone’s experience of ageing will be improved.

Over the coming months, the partnership will be engaging local health and social care leaders, Voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations (VCSE), social entrepreneurs and people in later life and their support networks to become involved in the programme. We are looking for committed groups and individuals who would like to support new thinking and approaches develop new and exciting products and services that will transform people's experience of later life.

Unsurprisingly in a programme about ageing, time is of the essence. We want the best health and social care innovations, services and products to reach people in later life as quickly as possible. Working together, we can achieve just that. Our vision is that by creating services better aligned to real-life needs and issues, everyone’s experience of ageing will be improved.

If you have a great idea which could help improve the experience of ageing please do get in touch with us at ageing@designcouncil.org.uk and see how you can get involved. 

Our Communications Manager Chris Finnegan originally wrote this article for the National Health Executive blog in February 2017.