European Matters Group

Note of Meeting: May 21st 2015

Europe House, Smith Square, London

Attendees

Viv Gee (Chair)–North West Age Action Alliance

Elisabeth Sweeney (Host) – European Parliament Information Office in the UK

Ken Bluestone – Age International

Josy Eldred

Katherine Hill – Age UK

Jane Hopkins - Lewisham Pensioners Forum

Jenny New – Ransackers

Steve Robinson – Beth Johnson Foundation

Bridgit Sam-Bailey - Lewisham Pensioners Forum

Elisabeth Sclater - Older Women’s Network Europe

Kerry Smith - Lewisham Pensioners Forum

Dave Wright(Secretary) - University of Brighton

Apologies

Fiona Bartels-Ellis – British Council

Alan Beazley - Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion

Sharon Blackburn - National Care Forum &EAHSA

Ronald Douglas – National Pensioners Convention

Michael Elliot

Emily Georghiou – Age UK

Alan Hatton-Yeo – Communities for All Ages UK

Elcena Jeffers - Elcena Jeffers Foundation

Angela Kydd - University of the West of Scotland

Teresa Lefort - Ransackers and Wise Age

Anita Pincas – Institute of Education, University of London

Gill Sargeant – Sargeant Associates

Jane Watts- National Institute of Adult Continuing Education

  1. Welcome and introductions

VG welcomed everyone to the fourthmeeting of the group.

  1. Notes of the previous meeting – October 30th 2014

The notes from the third meeting had been circulated by email and copies were available at the meeting. Dave Wright apologised for misspelling Bridgit Sam-Bailey’s name. With this amendment the notes were agreed.

The website for Ransackers shown in the Notes from the meeting before last i.e. May 2014 should be: .

  1. Lewisham Pensioners Forum’s involvement with European research

Bridgit Sam-Bailey gave an introduction to the Lewisham Pensioners Forum. Bridgit explained that Lewisham is the 15th most ethnically diverse area in the UK and it is important for the Forum that everyone respects each other.

Jane Hopkins, Elisabeth Sclater and Kerry Smith shared their experiences of participating in the European ‘Grundtvig’ Project. A copy of their presentation will be circulated with these Notes.

They had worked with older people’s groups from Belgium, Germany, Slovakia, CzechRepublic, Bulgaria. Visits to the different countries had identified major differences between these countries. Pensioners are much more active in society in Britain than in many other nations where older people are passive recipients of welfare which is so low that many become destitute. The team Lewisham were very glad to be living in Britain.

The main focus for the project was ‘Reference budgets’. These are priced baskets of goods and services that are needed for households in given countries, regions or cities to achieve a given standard of living. The project’s objective was to report what was required to ensure ‘Social Inclusion and Dignity in Old Age’. The report was written in English and compiled by the German organisation BAGSO (Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Senioren-Organisationen). The Lewisham team were responsible for turning it into more natural English. A copy can be found at

This project is one example of European Union action to lift citizens out of poverty. The term ‘Reference Budgets’ is not widely used in the UK. However, Donald Hirsch, Director, Centre for Research in Social Policy at LoughboroughUniversity is working on a minimum income standard for the UK with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and this has links with the campaign for a Living Wage.

and

  1. - UN Convention on the Rights of the Older Person

Katherine Hill, Policy Adviser on Equality and Human Rights from Age UK works to promote the human rights of older people in the UK and the legislative framework is expected to change as a result of the UK governments manifesto commitment to replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights.

Ken Bluestone,Political and Policy Adviser for Age International – which is the charitable subsiduary of ageUK . Ken described progress towards a UN Convention for the Rights of Older People.

Ken explained a Convention was needed to counter the widespread age discrimination and ageism in human society. Reference to issues affecting older people barely exist in existing conventions. This is important because of the rising proportion of older people, this will grow particularly in Africa as its “youth bulge” ages.

The need for such a Convention has been championed by Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile and ElSalvador and the UN has created an Open Working Group to consider the matter . It has appointed Rosa Kornfeld-Matte, from Chile, as its Independent Expert on the full enjoyment of the human rights of all older persons. . She is due to report in September 2016. There is currently opposition to the creation of a new Convention from some European states, US and Canada on the grounds that the existing human rights conventions could be made to work better without the cost of setting up a new one.

The Global Alliance for the rights of older people is a network of civil society organisations promoting the rights of older people. . It has undertaken research around the world about human rights which showed that older people were frequently denied the following principles which underlie human rights:

Non-discrimination, respect, dignity, autonomy, equality, self-fulfilment and personal development, full and effective participation, social inclusion, inter-generational solidarity and recognition of intrinsic value and worth as a human being.

The next meeting of the Open Working Group will be held from 14 to 16 July 2015 in New York. It is due to consider

  • Ageing in cities
  • Ageing in place
  • Older persons, humanitarian and disaster emergencies
  • Addressing dementia, older women age and gender discrimination
  • Age limit on data collection
  • Gaps in existing international framework for human rights of older persons

In the UK, there is little government activity and Ken suggests there could be a lobbying role for the Europe Matters Group.

  1. Bed Blocking in UK Hospitals

Viv introduced the topic explaining the appalling treatment by a London hospital seeking to send her frail mother back home after surgery knowing that as Viv lived in the North she could not be there to make sure her mother was safe. Josy suggested the group should gather evidence showing it was more expensive to keep people in hospital as an argument for improving social care. The consensus was that central and local government and the health and social care professions already knew this but still the funding for social care in local authorities had been cut drastically. The issue over discharge from hospital to the community had been tackled over the years by many projects seeking to integrate health and social care. In the past many had failed because of opposition to the changes.

Viv asked what the Europe Matters Working group could contribute. Josy thought we could gather insights from Europe and referred to information from Dave which had shown that each country had different health and social care arrangements. For example although the UK had relatively few hospital beds per 1,000 population overall the NHS was considered to be among the best in the world.

Dave said he had also contacted Julia Wadoux Policy and Project Coordinator for Health, ICT and Accessibility at Age Platform Europe and she had suggested some contacts.

  • Pascal Garel, Secretary General of HOPE – EU Hospitals and Healthcare Federations
  • European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing built on different action groups, one of them being dedicated to integrated care (so-called B3 action group),
  • The International Foundation for Integrated Care knows about such examples/similar ones:

Katherine said that AgeUK were currently involved with several integration projects funded through the “Better Care” initiative and Steve Robinson thought it would be worth pursuing social impact bonds.

Viv concluded that the Europe Matters Working Group should see what it could offer to the “domestic” Age Action Alliance working group. Viv, Josy, Dave and Steve will form a “virtual” subgroup to take this forward to see if there is a role for the group in this issue.

  1. Active Ageing Research in Europe

Dave had attended the MOPACT (Mobilising the Potential of Active Ageing) Forum in Tallinn which was run by Alan Walker of SheffieldUniversity. In the five minutes left Dave shared a presentation on Senior Citizens Participatory Budgetting from Berta Nunes, Mayor of Alfandega da Fe. This isa small rural municipality in North East Portugal which has a relatively high proportion of older people because the younger people have left to find work. Older people were suffering because of the poor transport and lack of community facilities. The Mayor had allocated €10,000 from the municipal budget and let the Senior Citizens Council choose the best project. The winner was to refurbish a primary school for community use. Alfandega da Fe’s implementation of Participatory Budgeting had been identified as best practice.

  1. Next Meeting

Viv suggested the next meeting should be in October with one possible topic “What UK Renegotiations on Europe mean for Older People”. Bridgit Sam-Bailey thought this was important and mentioned a forthcoming meeting at the House of Lords regarding frozen pensions particularly as they affected Commonwealth citizens.

Dave Wright

June 2015