Policy

This is our jargon buster of key policy terms related to social exclusion:

A Sure Start to Later Life report – the Social Exclusion Unit report on excluded older people which called for a new model of local‚ joined-up‚ low-intensity services‚ available to all but targeted at the most disadvantaged.

LinkAge Plus programme –  eight pilots testing the model of services proposed in the Social Exclusion Unit’s A Sure Start to Later Life.  The programme is run by the Department for Work and Pensions team responsible for the UK Strategy on Ageing‚ Opportunity Age.

Local Area Agreements – agreements which set priorities for the local area‚ negotiated between local public bodies and the Government‚ usually with input from other organisations through local partnership arrangements.  Existing LAAs include a ‘block’ on ‘healthy communities and older people’ which can contain optional indicators on older people’s quality of life or various dimensions of social exclusion (eg unfit housing).

Social Exclusion Task Force – the cross-Government team responsible for social exclusion.  Its current work programme‚ set out in Reaching Out and subsequent updates‚ does not cover older people.

Social Exclusion Unit – the cross-Government team responsible for social exclusion between 1997 and 2006.  One of its final reports‚ A Sure Start to Later Life‚ focused on older people.

Targets – the Government is currently reviewing central and local targets as part of the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review.  There will be a smaller number of central Government targets‚ and it is expected that these will include indicators on older people’s wellbeing.  It is likely that future LAA negotiations to agree local targets will draw on this national list of targets‚ so there should be an incentive for public bodies to focus on older people’s wellbeing and social inclusion

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Email: Policy team