Policy

The proportion of older people in England’s rural areas is significantly higher than in urban areas. It is a trend that is likely to continue‚ as more people move to the countryside for quality of life reasons in their 40s and 50s and stay on into retirement. With an increasingly active older rural population many of whom continue to work beyond retirement age or contribute to the life of their community through voluntary work‚ there is a need to re-examine what it means to deliver for older people in rural areas. Policy makers needs to look beyond a focus on health and social services‚ to look at all rural services which impact on the lives of older people including leisure‚ transport‚ crime and housing.

Following the success of the Ageing in the Countryside conference in March 2004‚ Age Concern England and its partners Help the Aged‚ Defra and the Commission for Rural Communities commissioned research to bring together the experience of those meeting the challenges of delivering for older people in rural areas. The resulting publication ‘Delivering for older people in rural areas’ (pdf) is aimed at those in the public‚ private and voluntary sectors who are involved in either commissioning or delivering services for older people.

‘Delivering for older people in rural areas’ examines the rural context of delivering services and identifies good practice in delivering mainstream and targeted services for‚ or involving older people in‚ rural areas and in particular overcoming the problems of isolated communities from main service centres and the need to develop joint working across a range of public and private sector organisations. At the heart of this booklet is a collection of case studies which illustrate ten guiding principles for developing successful services. This is complemented by sections on understanding what older people want‚ demographic trends and the value of profiling rural communities. Consultation and the importance of listening to and involving older people in shaping future services are also discussed.      

A number of additional papers have been produced for this website to provide additional supporting information on some of the issues: