Sure Start for older people promised

Plans for a Sure Start service for older people and cross-government action to tackle social exclusion in the age group are set out in a major report published this week.

Directors of adult services will be given a responsibility to tackle social exclusion and ministers from across government will join up proposals on older people, ageing and exclusion, the report from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister states.

The report, being launched at the Community Care Live Adult Care Services conference today (26 January) by communities minister David Miliband, also says the government will consider creating an Office for Ageing and Older People.

In their foreword to the report, entitled A Sure Start to Later Life: Ending Inequalities for Older People, ministers Phil Woolas and Baroness Andrews say the government has learned from the “pioneering” work of Sure Start with children and families and now wants to test a similar approach among older people under the Link-Age-Plus banner.

The report details government action to tackle the causes of social exclusion identified in an initial report, Excluded Older People, published almost a year ago.

It will overlap with the white paper on social care and health, expected next week, to focus on more preventive services (see news).

In an interview with Community Care, Baroness Andrews said the report was “part of the same phenomenon as the white paper”.