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Older & Bolder welcome Minister Brady's announcement of consultations on National Positive Ageing Strategy [12/02/2010]
Campaign alliance says it’s essential that Minister’s meetings meet the criteria for effective consultation practice
Older & Bolder has welcomed this afternoon’s (Friday, 12 February) announcement by Minister Áine Brady TD that she is to begin a series of eight consultation meetings with older people around the country beginning in Cork on 4 March and Sligo on 11 March.
Older & Bolder’s Director, Patricia Conboy, explained that the meetings are supposed to help the Minister develop the National Positive Ageing Strategy which will set the direction for future policies, programmes and services for older people in Ireland.
Ms Conboy said that it is essential that these consultations meet the criteria for effective consultation practice (see Older & Bolder’s Baseline Statement on the NPAS, October 2008, olderandbolder.ie.dedi2560.your-server.de) including:
• A high visibility campaign to heighten public awareness of the NPAS and the consultation meetings;
• Sufficient lead-in time to inform older people and older people’s groups about the meetings and to enable their effective participation in the process;
• Inclusive use of all NGO networks to disseminate information widely and openly about the consultation meetings;
• Clarity about the terms of reference for the consultation meetings;
• Nomination of independent, authoritative and trusted individuals to chair the sessions;
• Value of an approach to agenda setting that is both focused and open, i.e. clarity about specific questions and issues to be addressed by participants and a mechanism for recording issues and concerns that cannot be addressed in the course of a single meeting;
• A meeting process that enables a diversity of voices and perspectives to be heard and recorded;
• Mechanisms for the inclusion of older people (housebound, in Nursing Homes, lacking access to transport) who will find it difficult to attend public meetings;
• Accountability to participants in the meetings, demonstrated by the provision of written public feedback about the proceedings of meetings.
Patricia Conboy said that Older & Bolder’s own experience of conducting consultation meetings with older people during the period November 2008-October 2009 reinforced the salience of many of these points.
Returning to the issue of the importance of the strategy to older people, Patricia Conboy explained that the strategy is intended to be a long-term plan for making Ireland a better place in which to grow older.
“To be effective this blueprint will need to involve all levels of Government from Ministers to city and county councils. It will need to cover policies, services and practices in areas such as health care, housing, transport, income, employment and independent living. It is to be hoped that the National Positive Ageing Strategy will also influence the activities of organisations in the private and voluntary sectors.
“Given the potential importance of the National Positive Ageing Strategy to older people’s lives, Older & Bolder is actively encouraging older people to participate in the Minister’s consultation meetings and to make their voices heard.”
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Pat Montague, Montague Communications, 01-8303116 or 086-7914429
Notes to Editors
Older & Bolder is an alliance of seven non-governmental organisations in the ageing sector: Active Retirement Ireland, Age & Opportunity, Alzheimer Society of Ireland, Carers Association, Irish Hospice Foundation, Irish Senior Citizens Parliament and the Senior Help Line. Older & Bolder’s vision is of an Ireland that affirms ageing and the rights of all older people, enabling everyone to live and die with confidence and dignity as equal, respected and involved members of society as we age.
