Author Archives: Mary Milne

The Take Action award: for people who stand up and speak up

Posted on April 24, 2012 | 1 Comment

At the Care and Support Alliance mass lobby of parliament a couple of months ago, I spent some time briefing Age UK campaigners before they went in to see their MPs. It was lovely to meet so many people who had taken the time and trouble to come to Westminster to make their voices heard.

Some of those I spoke to had done this kind of thing before and were feeling quite confident at getting their points across. For others, it was a new experience. I remember one woman in particular who was very apprehensive at the thought of meeting her high-profile MP. ‘I have to tell you I am really out of my comfort zone on this,’ she said, ‘But I just thought if I didn’t come down to London to tell my MP how important care is, who would?’

I really admired her courage in standing up and speaking out – which is what campaigning is all about. The really good news is when I spoke to her again after she had met her MP, she was a different person, full of confidence. ‘Yes, he really did listen to me,’ she said.

Age UK’s campaigns rely on people like her, who are prepared to take their courage in both hands and stand up and be counted. And we want to celebrate and encourage all campaigners in later life, whatever issue they are campaigning on.

That is why Age UK is supporting the Sheila McKechnie Foundation (SMK) in sponsoring the Take Action award for older campaigners again this year.

SMK was set up in memory of the legendary campaigner Sheila McKechnie, and is the only UK registered charity dedicated to connecting, informing and supporting campaigners. The Campaigner Awards are for people who want to make a difference and want some support in getting results.

Last year’s winner of the Take Action award was Kathleen Carter, an inspiring and determined campaigner from Stockton-on-Tees, who has challenged ‘payday loan’ companies who charge massive interest rates for short term loans.

You can read more about Kathleen’s experience here.

In the meantime, if you know of any campaigners who are aged 60+ and deserve recognition and the support that SMK can offer, please nominate them for this year’s Take Action award.

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Councillors achieving Pride of Place

Posted on February 7, 2012 | Leave a comment

Last week the shortlist was announced by the LGiU for the Age UK Pride of Place Award. The award, which is one of the LGiU and CCLA C’llr Achievement Awards 2012, recognises a councillor who has taken the lead in championing the voices of older people in their patch and made a real commitment to improving neighbourhoods for them.

The shortlisted councillors are:

  • Councillor Sue Cooley (Manchester City Council)
  • Councillor Edward Davie (London Borough of Lambeth Council)
  • Councillor Olwen Foggin (Devon County Council)
  • Councillor Robert Johnston (Winchester City Council)
  • Councillor Howard Murray (Poynton Town Council)

Each of them, in very different ways and very different areas, has shown real commitment to listening to the views and needs of older people and then bringing about long-term change to their areas.

As I have highlighted on this blog over the last year, good neighbourhoods are key to helping older people get out and about and stay active as they get older. Things like broken pavements, street lights which don’t work, and public transport which isn’t accessible or available at all, place barriers in the way of people who want to stay active as they grow older.

The key insight of Age UK’s Pride of Place campaign is that local elected members have a pivotal role to play in bringing about neighbourhood improvements. They are the only people with both the local knowledge and the democratic accountability.

Through the campaign, nearly 200 councillors have demonstrated their commitment to improving neighbourhoods by signing up as Pride of Place advocates. 

This week we also held the first of five support sessions for these advocates. It was a lively session where we exchanged ideas and wrestled with problems such as how to provide accessible public toilets in the current financial climate and how to influence public transport providers. A recurrent theme was the importance of getting communities involved in solving their own problems.

The good news in all this is that change is possible – as the five shortlisted councillors show, improvements can happen. The award winner will be announced at a ceremony at Westminster City Council on 27 February: watch this space.

And if you are a councillor who wants to bring about improvements to your local area, why not sign up as a Pride of Place advocate now?

Find out more about Age UK’s Pride of Place campaign

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Do you know a councillor who deserves an award?

Posted on November 7, 2011 | Leave a comment

Recent research for Age UK showed that more than half of people over the age of 60 say they have never had contact with their local councillor. Yet despite this lack of contact, nearly twice as many over 60s can name their councillor as can younger people, and when they do have contact, older people are more likely to be satisfied with the outcome.

Councillors have a vital role to play in local life, and can make a big difference. That’s why Age UK is working with LGiU and CCLA to sponsor the Age UK Pride of Place award  as part of the 2012 LGiU and CCLA C’llr Achievement Awards. The award will be given to a councillor who champions the voices of older people in their ward or division and makes a real commitment to improving neighbourhoods for them.

Broken pavements, street lights which don’t work, the need for more seating, the perennial problem of poor public  transport, these are all ‘bread and butter’ issues for most councillors. They are also key issues for older people.

Age UK’s Pride of Place report, shows how relatively low cost improvements to neighbourhoods can enable older people to go on getting out and about and being active for longer. Continue reading →

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At your convenience

Posted on July 29, 2011 | 4 Comments

Leeds Older People’s Forum are campaigning for better toilets in the city centre as part of Age UK’s Change One Thing campaign. In a guest post, their project officer Rachel Cooper reflects on their story (so far)…

A little over a year ago NHS Leeds produced the ‘Lav Nav’, a toilet map for Leeds City Centre. The intended purpose: to provide those for whom “your bladder controls your shopping route” the information they might need to access the city. The group that helped produce the guide evaluated each of the sites for accessibility. This information leaflet had an unexpected knock on effect. Such a visual representation of how few toilets there are prompted members of Leeds Older People’s Forum to take action. It wasn’t just the dismal number of toilets that was striking, but their poor accessibility. Furthermore, the toilets in the newest development were the least accessible: on the third floor, through a turnstile and chargeable.

For me, here’s where one of the lessons from the Change One Thing training and toolkit comes in. One of the messages of the training: don’t run to your timetable. Despite the economic situation, Leeds has continued to build new developments in its quest to be one of the top cities for shopping. Two new major developments are planned and based on the ‘Lav Nav’ experience we cannot presume that new equals better when it comes to toilet provision. If we wait for a more ideal time, say when we have less to do around the impact of the cuts, it will be too late for us to make a difference.

Like many Forums around the country we work as the strategic voice of older people in our area, acting as an interface between our members: third sector organisations and individual older people (a recent development), and statutory bodies. Campaigning is new to us but we see it as a valuable development for the Forum. Our member organisations have a key role to play when it comes to influencing change for older people but we really need individual older people as activists if we want to make things happen. I don’t think we are alone in the view that campaigning is the way forward; it reflects the mood nationally. The Forum has an important role in supporting that locally. But as I say, this is all new to us so we decided we needed some training and support. Change One Thing fitted the bill perfectly.

As part of our training we plotted routes of influence and who our allies are. There are many lessons to be learned from the training, but these are the ones that most struck a chord with us:

1. Joining forces with those who share the concerns gives you greater capacity and power, in this case: young families, disabled people, groups with concerns about city centre development.

2. Linking with disparate groups e.g. young people is a good way of attracting publicity and spreading the message further.

3. Plotting the routes of power and influence e.g. shops, Council departments with whom we don’t have a previous relationship (planning, marketing, city centre development), developers, ensures that we are targeting the right people. We adapt our message to suit different audiences. Continue reading →

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