Report of Director of Strategy / Deputy Chief Executive, MLCO, Programme Director - Our Healthier Manchester, MHCC, Executive Director of Adult Services, Manchester City Council and Manchester Local Care Organisation, Director of Population Health, Nursing and Safeguarding, MHCC and Strategic Lead for Ageing and Head of the Greater Manchester Ageing Hub, GMCA

This paper provides information on how Manchester Health and Care Commissioning and Manchester Local Care Organisation are developing age friendly approaches across service development and delivery. 

The Committee considered the joint report that provided information on how MHCC and MLCO were developing age friendly approaches across service development and delivery. 

The Strategic Lead for Ageing and Head of GM Ageing Hubreferred to the main points of the report which were: -

·                Describing the background to the development of MHCC;

·                Describing the background to the development of the MLCO to deliver integrated health and care services at neighbourhood, locality and citywide levels;

·                The relationships with key stakeholders across the City, with particular attention of the relationship with Age Friendly Manchester;

·                Describing the priorities that MLCO had identified that they could work with the Age Friendly team together on;

·                Describing the Age Friendly Partnership structures;

·                Progress to date across a range of new models and approaches that had been developed that better met the needs of older people or better connected and supported Manchester’s age-friendly approaches; and

·                Next steps.

The Committee welcomed the report and noted the progress to date, commenting that it demonstrated an Our Manchester approach to this issue. A Member further commented that consideration needed to be given to designing intergenerational spaces, noting the importance of these to tackle barriers between different age groups and promote a positive image of ageing, and that more needed to be done to improve employment opportunities for older people. The Member further commented that environmental issues needed to be considered also, noting that fuel poverty disproportionally impacted on older residents.

The Strategic Lead for Ageing commented that the importance of employment and its relationship with health outcomes was recognised and work was ongoing across GM to address the issue of employment for people over the age of 50. He further acknowledged the comment made regarding the importance of intergenerational spaces and stated that neighbourhoods with a mixture of ages tended to be more successful and the new Northern Gateway scheme presented an opportunity to deliver this type of neighbourhood model.

A Member commented that the health service was inherently ageist and the whole service nationally needed to be looked at to address this. She commented that hospitals were very age unfriendly institutions and they needed to acknowledge and challenge this. She further commented that GPs also needed to consider and review how their services adequately addressed the needs of their older patients.

The Deputy Chief Executive Manchester Local Care Organisation noted the comments from the Member and stated that it was the intention not to admit people to hospital unless absolutely necessary as it was recognised that this did not always deliver the best health outcomes for older people. She said that clinical teams were working together to ensure that patients were directed to the most appropriate services and care pathways so that they received the most appropriate care. In respect of GPs she said that she would discuss the issues raised with the Medical Director to ensure this was fed back and an update would be provided to the Committee at an appropriate time.

In response to a comment made by a Member regarding the importance of efficient public transport to ensure older residents could access health services the Strategic Lead for Ageing stated that this and community transport services would be a priority issue in the coming twelve months.

A Member stated that whilst she welcomed social prescribing as a positive development it was important to recognise that some local areas experienced many pressures and access to services and resources could vary and consideration needed to be given to this, as without these it would fail. The Director of Population Health stated that they were working with local areas to map assets and services and would consult with local Members to identify gaps and ensure that all local groups were involved and that the age friendly work was valued.

A Member recommended that the report that had been submitted to the Committee be forwarded to the Age Friendly Board for information.

Decisions                

1. To note the report.

2. To recommend that the report that had been submitted to the Committee be forwarded to the Age Friendly Board for information.