1. 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

2. 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?

3. 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

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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”

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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 -

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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)

16. 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

17. 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...

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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!

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

23. THANK YOU