Age Friendly Flintshire

What is an age-friendly community?

The number of people in Flintshire aged 65 and over has risen by 23.7% since the 2011 census. This ageing population is projected to continue until 2043

The idea of age-friendly communities was developed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to identify the changes needed for communities to adapt to and benefit from ageing populations.

An age-friendly community enables people of all ages to participate in community activities and treats everyone with respect, regardless of their age. The process of becoming age-friendly involves individuals, local groups, services and businesses working together to make positive change to enable everyone to age well, and in particular, to ensure older people feel valued and respected and able to:

get out and about
do the things they want to do
lead healthy and active lives
stay informed
have their voices heard

The Welsh Government Strategy for an Ageing Society identifies the development of Age-Friendly Communities as a cross-cutting theme with the aim of “making Wales the best place in the World to grow older”. Local Authorities across Wales are being encouraged to work with communities and partners to increase the age-friendliness of communities and to join the WHO Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities & Communities. Flintshire joined the Global Network in May 2023.

How Flintshire benefits

Be part of a growing international movement committed to improving the lives and well-being of older people.
Receive regular updates on age-friendly practice from around the world, share and learn from others’ experiences.
Open up potential funding opportunities and find new partners to work with.
Share examples of local initiatives on the Age-Friendly World website which showcases examples of good practice from around the world.
Help to make Wales more inclusive, supportive and friendly on a global stage.

How communities benefit

Communities are involved in developing projects and initiatives based on local priorities.
Opportunities to Influence change in the way services/activities are designed/delivered for the benefit of people of all ages.
Learn about age-friendly initiatives in other areas that may benefit the local community.
Potential to access funding to support local projects or more broadly with partners and other communities.
Contribute to making Flintshire as a county more age-friendly.

The 8 themes of age-friendly communities

The WHO identifies 8 themes (domains) of communities that make them age-friendly. By working with the local community, we can identify local priorities and make changes in some or all of the domains to make the community more age-friendly.

View the summary of age-friendly Flintshire priorities and actions

Whilst not all priorities can be addressed immediately, they can help inform medium and long-term plans and policies. Many of the priorities can be addressed by people working together within the community.

You can click on each theme to read more about them.

Outdoor space and public buildings

Housing

Transport

Community support and health services

Communication and information

Civic participation and employment

Social participation

Respect and social inclusion

Flintshire’s partnership commitments:

Flintshire has a longstanding and proud track record of partnership working, with communities and with public and third sector organisations, working together to deliver on shared priorities.

The Council and its local public sector partners work in collaboration as a Public Services Board (PSB) to determine well-being priorities for both Flintshire and Wrexham to improve local well-being across both counties. The board is made up of public and voluntary sector organisations. Together, these organisations carry out an assessment of wellbeing, and set out objectives for improving well-being in a local Well-being plan 2017-2023.

The Council has partnership priorities for itself as an individual organisation. These priorities take into consideration the views of local people and partner expectations in addition to Welsh Government policy and the Council’s legal responsibilities. Read the Flintshire Council Plan.

The most recent Assessment of Well-being in Flintshire was published in May 2022. In February 2023 Flintshire and Wrexham Public Service Boards formally came together as a single body and is currently working to develop the Well-being Plan for Flintshire and Wrexham 2023-28 which will be published in May 2023.

Development and implementation of Flintshire Council plan and associated policies and plans in addition to the Well-being Plan for Flintshire and Wrexham, positively influences the age-friendliness of our communities across the eight age-friendly themes.

Contact us

We’d like to hear about existing and planned age-friendly activities and initiatives in your community. Email opengagement@flintshire.gov.uk with the area your age-friendly activity/initiative is based and about your age-friendly activity/initiative.

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