Initiative to improve the ageing experience launched

Having received £3.65 million of investment from the Big Lottery Fund, the Design Council has launched Transform Ageing, a new initiative aiming to deliver innovative new solutions to better support the needs of people in later life in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.

Whilst longer life expectancy is one of the main triumphs of the previous century, unless planning and provision improve, it could prove to be one of the greatest challenges of this one. The social care sector is being squeezed in terms of both finances and resources, with no clear finish line in sight to the industry’s problems.

Therefore, by working alongside UnLtd, the South West Academic Health Science Network and the Centre for Ageing Better, the Transform Ageing programme will seek help improve the experience of ageing for people in the south-west of the UK by recognising and establishing the innovations and solutions that are required.

The programme places people in later life at the heart of the design process, actively engaging their insight, increasing their influence and supporting the delivery of solutions that better meet their needs.

The programme will use collaborative design techniques to create a new generation of user-led health and social care solutions which tackle the real priority issues of people in later life. Bringing together people in later life with social entrepreneurs and health and social care leaders will create people-centred innovation in products and services, in the places they are needed.

Clare Devine, executive director at the Design Council, said: “Design Council is proud to have worked with partners to devise and develop this design-led, user-centred programme. Through first-class research, collaborative working and rigorous design, Transform Ageing will enable local communities to take charge of their care needs.

“The programme will actively engage their insight and support to identify health and social care challenges and will generate tangible, creative and lasting solutions to meet their needs in the south-west and beyond. Our vision is that by creating services better aligned to real-life needs and issues, everyone’s experience of ageing will be improved.”

If successful, the initiative will be rolled out elsewhere across the UK.