Age Concern and Help the Aged to become Age UK family

Merged charity Age Concern and Help the Aged is to be rebranded as the Age UK family from next April.

Four organisations will be launched next spring for England and the UK (Age UK), Scotland (Age Scotland), Wales (Age Cymru) and Northern Ireland (Age NI).

Chief executive of Age Concern and Help the Aged Tom Wright, who will head Age UK, said: “We are delighted to have finalised an important part of the new organisations’ identity and feel confident that our new name clearly reflects who we represent and what we do.”

Expanding operations

The new organisations aim to expand on their current operations by changing their network of charity shops into hubs of information for older people. They also plan to increase their international profile with partner charities across 70 countries and increase their research into older people’s issues.

The charity been consulting with its staff, older people, donors and service users since the merger in April this year.

Wright said: “The research we have carried out over the last eight months has not only helped us choose the right name, but given us the chance to hear how we can best represent and support people in later in life. This has been crucial in helping us develop a shared vision for the new charity so we can deliver real improvements to the lives of older people.”

Merged name to stay until 2010

The charity will continue to operate as Age Concern and Help the Aged until next spring to give local Age Concern branches, which are independent, time to prepare for the change in brand.

Discussions with local Age Concerns are ongoing but the charity hopes many of the 330 plus organisations across the country will sign up to the new brand.

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