Back in Sept 2015 I wrote a blog post about experiencing yet another Groundhog Day when I discovered that the UK Government is reinventing a library of research that has been done countless times before. And countless times before it has been ignored. So was born the Foresight 'Future of an ageing population' project that (in its own words) was going to:
Analyse the challenges and opportunities of an ageing society. This change will bring both challenges and opportunities for central and local government, with impacts on a wide range of public services. The ‘Future of an ageing population’ project will provide an evidence base to help identify options that will:
- improve quality of life for older people
- enable older people to participate more fully in society
- ensure everyone can access the tools and facilities to help them live a long and healthy life
Well here we are in June 2017 and it has been, done whatever it was going to do, and is finished. It is closed.
Did any of you notice?
In my final book about the Ageing Business (This I Know) I introduced the idea of the 'Ageing Blob', a group of organisations and people that busy themselves with doing stuff to do with ageing, most, if not all it, having zero impact on the lives of older people or companies.
Maybe I am missing a trick but this project is a perfect case of government 'going through the motions' of being seen to do something about the ageing challenge. We are drowning in knowledge about the issues of ageing, what we need are workable solutions. Unfortunately, most members of the blob are great at report writing and presenting but have zero experience of actually making things happen. Sad. Dick Stroud
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