Making our City Age-Friendly: The Lane Cove Challenge Presentation to MAV Age-Friendly Communities and Local Government NATIONAL CONFERENCE 29 and 30 October 2014 Sharyn Briggs and Carol Sinclair

Our presentation today About a project undertaken by Lane Cove Council to gain membership into the WHO Global AFCC Network How we created an all-of-Council response to ageing How we have harnessed older people as the drivers of age-friendly directions What has come out of the project Has it changed Council’s thinking?

What Did Lane Cove Do? Prepared a ‘Strategy for an Age-Friendly Lane Cove’ including: A background review An existing evidence base A baseline assessment A 3 year Council-wide plan of action The first AFC in NSW – in June 2014 Background review of what everyone else had done An existing evidence base of how aged friendly council’s current plans and strategies were A baseline assessment of how aged friendly it is now A 3 year Council-wide plan of action

Why Did We Do It? Ageing population only just above average for NSW Aim was to assist Council to respond to the challenges of an ageing population Also wanted to foster an environment that promotes active ageing and community engagement.

How Did We Do It? Used the WHO framework and bottom up approach Referred to the Vancouver Protocol Used the WHO checklists to assess the 8 domains of city life Rang everyone we could Took the best ideas from everywhere and value added Applied for membership as soon as we could But recognised that the Vancouver Protocol had been adopted for the pilot study and not adapted since the pilot Unfortunately access to most resources and member cities comes ONLY after joining.

Consultation, consultation and more consultation “I’d hate to move away…” 12 Focus groups – 2 with Service Providers/Access Committee 4 Forums – morning, afternoon and evening Survey – paper and online, 276 respondents Total of people providing input was 479 “I need to participate more” “It depends where you live whether transport is good” “Lifts are untrust-worthy so getting around is a nightmare”

Promotion, promotion and even more promotion Seniors Newsletter Library NGO’s Council website Local monthly paper Regional newspaper Letters to community groups Attending activities and events Council e-newsletters

Information, information, and drowning in information Used the survey as the assessment tool Also asked for suggestions on how to improve age-friendliness Collated ‘good things’, not-so-good things’ and suggestions for improvements from all consultations Incorporated suggestions into a whole-of-Council Action Plan Developed the statistical rating. suggestions for improvements from all consultations – this formed the basis of the baseline assessment

So How Did Lane Cove Score? Well !! But not so well there was not room for improvement! An average score of 3.8 on a 5 point scale Three areas for Council to focus their efforts on -

How Did We Get Buy-In? Membership is supported by Council BUT It needed to be recognised that: Council is not responsible for everything We already have many things covered in our CSP/Operational Plan We have limited budgets and must serve the whole community, not just older people

Took responsibility off their shoulders Also emphasised: Sometimes just a case of doing things slightly differently It doesn’t necessarily mean a big bucket of money There are lots of things that can be done in normal workloads Took responsibility off their shoulders Got the conversation about ageing going before we started Kept good communication across Council Take the responsibility for driving the actions of other sections off their shoulders and make it as easy as possible for them

Process EOI to COTA Liveable Communities Project July 2011 EOI to COTA Liveable Communities Project May 2012 COTA presentation to Councillors and staff Feb 2013 Budget for Ageing Strategy COTA presentation to Councillors and staff – started the conversation (everyone across council has a role to play in making the community more liveable)

Cont’d Inspired by the AFCC Conference in Canberra! Oct 2013 Inspired by the AFCC Conference in Canberra! Ongoing Frequent conversation with other Council divisions Nov 2013 Gained Council support to follow the WHO path

How are Older People Continuing to Drive the Process? Asked participants if they wanted to be kept informed People requesting follow-up: 53% of participants Regular updates in Seniors Newsletter, on Council website and to the ‘keep informed’ list Community summary about to be widely distributed...

Nominations for an Age-Friendly Advisory Committee called First meeting held on 23 October Seminars/talks on age-friendly topics planned throughout year Planning an Annual Age-Friendly Forum

What has come out of it? Increased general community awareness Increased whole of Council awareness A genuine appreciation by older people of what Council is doing for them Community pride in participating in a global movement A real feeling of older people being listened to, respected and having opinions valued Hopefully an increase in age friendliness by the next assessment! Council awareness: now part of the conversation and thinking processes – an increased whole of Council awareness of the needs of older people in their everyday work whether it be half sized bins or overhanging tree branches on footpaths Increased general community awareness of the needs of older people

Has it changed Council’s thinking? Early days yet! Definitely raised awareness All parts of Council working toward achieving change Already flowing into work plans A new emphasis and approach to what Council is doing All parts of Council working toward achieving change – every section has something to work on WILL WE BECOME A MORE AGE FRIENDLY CITY? Only time will tell!

Will we become a more age friendly city as a result? WE BELIEVE SO but only time and the older community will tell!

THANK YOU