Age Equality Policy Forums

Three Age Equality Policy Forums will be established to review the progress of government departments and other statutory organisations towards meeting agreed standards.  They will help to provide a greater level of engagement than exists at present and encourage thinking into equality issues amongst staff within those organisations and within the policy and equality process. The forums will help move away from the largely passive approach to age equality to a proactive approach and ensure age is taken as a serious issue.

The Central Age Equality Policy Forum

The Central Age Equality Policy Forum will:

  • Facilitate a partnership approach and joint working between government departments, statutory bodies, voluntary/community organisations and other agencies in order to help participating organisations avoid duplication of effort and share resources
  • Provide an arena for the exchange of information, the identification of best practice and lessons learned and suggest possible areas for additional research
  • Keep the effectiveness of current provision to the Age sector under review and make recommendations for further policy and strategy as appropriate. In fulfilling these terms of reference the Age equality Policy Forum will take account of relevant legislation and the wider policy environment.
  • Identify the benchmarking/performance indicators to be piloted to assess progress on equality and social inclusion
  • Agree what are appropriate indicators and establish a baseline to measure from
  • Oversee the development of Age Awareness training.  This training will assist in the development of greater equality for older people.
  • Promote older people’s issues and ‘joined up’ working practice leading to organisations developing age neutral policies and procedures

Local Age Equality Policy Forums

There will be two Local Age Equality Policy Forums, the Northern Age Equality Policy Forum and the Southern Age Equality Policy Forum. The Northern and Southern Forums will:

  • Act as a sounding board for initiatives developed by the Central Forum
  • Communicate local responses to the Central Forum
  • Test performance indicators and Age Awareness training at the local level