Being an Age Friendly City
Age Friendly Leeds has a longstanding ambition to be the Best City to Grow Old In: a place where people in later life (age 50+) age well, lead healthy, connected, fulfilling, independent lives and are valued, feel respected and are recognised as assets. Age Friendly Leeds plays a preventative role to increase the proportion of our lives that we spend in good health in later life.
Age Friendly places, communities, and services support everyone, including those with health challenges, to lead vibrant, connected, fulfilling, and independent lives. As a result, this helps to prevent, reduce, and delay the need for reactive services. Our first Age Friendly Strategy was developed in 2015 which placed people in later life at the heart of our strategies, ensuring their diverse voices shape Leeds initiatives. This builds on previous work and a long history of engagement dating back to 1994.
Why it matters
Our data shows there is much more we can do to reduce the time people spend in poorer health in later life and being Age Friendly has been identified as a priority by older people in Leeds.
Like many large cities in the UK, Leeds has a relatively young population. However, a third of the population are aged 50+ and the 70-80+ population is going to grow significantly in the coming years. The older population (50+) is also growing in the most deprived areas and becoming more ethnically diverse. However, not everyone in later life has the same experiences of ageing well. Some communities spend a greater number of years in poorer health in later life.
Age Friendly Strategy 2025 – 2030 (add link)
The Age Friendly Strategy and Action Plan bring together key services with a focus on prevention to increase the number of years people spend in good health. By doing so, it seeks to reduce or delay the need for reactive services. We know that around 80% of what influences our health and ageing well is outside of health and care.
The World Health Organisation's Age Friendly Communities Framework sets out the domains (topics) that local places can address to improve structures and services to meet people's needs in later life. This provides a clear framework of 'what works' to promote ageing well. These broadly cover the wider determinants of health., including social factors, employment and the built environment required to support ageing well.
Local Partnerships
There are three key groups within Leeds, responsible for delivering the ambitions of Age Friendly Leeds. These are:
- The Age Friendly Board (AFB) - which is chaired by the Elected Older People’s Equality Champion with leadership from the Executive Member for Equalities, Adults and Health. Membership includes the representatives from the Council, Leeds Older People’s Forum, the Age Friendly Steering Group and West Yorkshire Combined Authority and reports to both the Executive Board and the Health and Wellbeing Board.
- The Age Friendly Leeds Network (AFLN) - which is co-chaired by the Head of Public Health (Ageing Well), Leeds City Council (LCC) and the Chair of Leeds Older People’s Forum.
The Age Friendly Leeds Steering Group is for older people living in Leeds to share their views, ideas, experiences and skills to help make Leeds more Age Friendly. They meet every month at Leeds City Museum/on Zoom.
Regional, National and International partnerships
Leeds was one of three places to have a strategic partnership with the Centre for Ageing Better to further test and apply ‘what works’ to make Leeds a better place to age. Our formal partnership with the Centre for Ageing Better ran from October 2017- 2022 and since, Leeds continues to be nationally recognised as a leading example of Age Friendly innovation, setting the benchmark for best practice in creating a city where everyone can age well.
Over the past couple of years our Age Friendly work has been showcased:
In partnership with the Centre for Ageing Better at a fringe event of the LGA conference
- At a national Health Equity Network webinar on healthy ageing (hosted by the Institute of Health Equity at UCL).
- In the Centre for Ageing Better's Age-friendly-engagement toolkit (Age-friendly Engagement Toolkit | Centre for Ageing Better) with a video case study exploring how Age‑friendly Leeds’s Steering Group is ensuring older people are actively involved in local decision‑making Age‑friendly Leeds Steering Group | Centre for Ageing Better
- With a focus on Home Plus in the Chief Medical Officer’s report 2024 and in a Centre for Ageing Better press release on accessible homes.
Leeds continues to be an active member of the UK Network of Age Friendly Communities. We have presented on a number of topics to this network and continue to be approached by other local authorities to share our work and learning from Age Friendly Leeds.
We also share our practice through the Yorkshire, Humber and North East Healthy Ageing Community of Improvement - A network of public health leads in the region with a healthy ageing/Age Friendly remit which enables collaboration and sharing of best practice. This group is co-chaired by the Head of Public Health (Ageing Well).