GHP April 2016

ghp April 2016 | 23 The report incorporates expert testimony from con- tributors at ILC-UK’s first Future of Ageing Conference which took place on Tuesday 24th November 2015. ILC-UK’s second Future of Ageing Conference will take place on Wednesday 9th November 2016: www. futureofageing.org.uk Baroness Sally Greengross OBE, Chief Executive of ILC-UK said: “If we want future generations of older people to age well policymakers must act now. The UK’s demography is slow to change and we can make some reasonable predictions and forecasts on how this may influence UK society over the next ten years. This gives us an opportunity to plan for the change we will witness. We can’t wait and hope ageing goes away. It won’t’”. Dr Michael Hutton, Chief Scientific Officer, Neurode- generative Disease at Eli Lilly and Company Ltd com- mented: “An ageing population is placing pressure on finite NHS resources whilst there are also important concerns about the quality of care, particularly for our elderly population in health and social care settings. The total cost of conditions such as dementia is huge. When assessing the scale of the problem, we must have a holistic understanding of the disease to ensure patients and their families are adequately supported and also to prevent a knock on effect to our economy, as this caring role prevents ‘carers’ from accessing other forms of employment”. ‘Innovation offers the NHS a real opportunity to meet the challenge of increasing demand on resources and squeezed budgets. Lilly was delighted to support this event and help develop ideas, to make the UK the best possible environment for supporting an ageing population’. Lord Filkin, Chair of the Centre for Ageing Better added: “If we don’t build the social care workforce by some mechanism both in volume and skill we are in trouble. It is hard to overstate what a bad place we are in. The system is crumbling now. Social care needs to have increased investment: the increase in long term conditions in the older population will drive big increases in demand and cost”. Professor Ian Philp CBE, Deputy Medical Director for Older People, Heart of England Foundation Trust said: “I think we can turn a concern about the costs of an ageing population into an opportunity to see growth, partly because so much wealth, asset wealth and dis- posable income sits with older people in our society. That wealth can be mobilised, for example to pay for major infrastructure projects through investment and return. We could turn it on its head from the apoca- lyptic tales of ‘we can’t afford an ageing population” to “my goodness what an asset”. Emma McWilliam, Hymans Robertson LLP said: “Grey hair is definitely something to be celebrated. That’s easier to do when governments have applied wisdom to setting policies that encourage generations to save enough to enjoy retirement, as well as leaving a fair and sustainable legacy for future generations that we can be proud of. There is more that Govern- ment can do, both to safeguard future generations and to support people in retirement. “The Government’s role in retirement should be to provide certainty through the flat rate state pension and act as an insurer of last resort for long-term care needs. To ensure those roles can be performed in a sustainable way, it’s vital that individuals are clear about how much money they will have in retirement, how far off track they might be and what they need to do to get back on track. Talking about the ‘savings gap’ in general terms doesn’t resonate with individuals. “They need to know how they will personally be affect- ed. Technology is making that easier, and the govern- ment should pave the way to make that technology more readily available to greater numbers of people. Enabling a smoother transition into retirement through part-time working will also help address individuals’ savings shortfalls, as well as deal with a potential fu- ture fall in UK productivity as we see greater swathes of the population ‘retired’”. Gary Day, Land & Planning Director from McCarthy & Stone, added: “The population is ageing rapidly but the UK’s housing stock is not coping with this change. There is a lack of choice when older people come to move to properties suitable for them in later life. This impacts negatively on a range of areas – poorer well-being, higher public spending on health and care, and blocked housing chains. We need to raise our focus beyond starter homes and encourage the building of more specialist housing suitable for older people across all tenures”. ILC-UK’s first Future of Ageing Conference took place in November 2015. Representatives from Govern- ment, business, academia and civil society gathered for the first annual Future of Ageing conference, host- ed by the International Longevity Centre – UK ILC-UK. Speakers included Baroness Altmann (Pensions Min- ister), Lord Willetts (Executive Chair, the Resolution Foundation), Professor Sir Mark Walport (Government Chief Scientific Officer), Lord Filkin (Chair, Centre for Better Ageing and former Labour Minister with respon- sibility for Sure Start, Early Years and Childcare), Paul Johnson (Director, Institute for Fiscal Studies), and Professor Jane Elliott (Chief Executive, The Economic and Social Research Council). ILC-UK’s second Future of Ageing Conference will take place on Wednesday 9th November 2016 www. futureofageing.org.uk . The International Longevi- ty Centre – UK (ILC-UK) is a futures organisation focussed on some of the biggest challenges facing Government and society in the context of demograph- ic change. Much of ILC-UK’s work is directed at the highest levels of Government and the civil service, both in London and Brussels. We have a reputation as a respected think tank which works, often with key partners, to inform important decision-making processes. ILC-UK’s policy remit is broad, and covers everything from pensions and financial planning, to health and social care, housing design, and age discrimination. We work primarily with central government, but also actively build relationships with local government, the private sector and relevant professional and academic associations. Health & Social Care