International ambitions for "age-friendly" Sutton!

The ambitious commitment will now be submitted to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Global Network of Age Friendly Communities programme for their prestigious “age-friendly” status.

Joining the WHO’s initiative will allow the Sutton Plan partners to learn and share the journey towards becoming age friendly with others around the world. The ambitious plans were launched at Age UK Sutton’s annual review on 14 January 2020.

Throughout 2020, Age UK Sutton will be hosting a variety of events to listen to Sutton residents and find out how best the Council and partners can build on the work that has already been done and improve life in Sutton for older people. The partners want to use these events as an opportunity to ensure that they focus on the areas that will have the biggest impact for older people locally, and would like as many people as possible to share their views to help them understand where these are. 

Age UK Sutton’s Chief Executive Nicola Upton said: “Being age friendly is about the type of place that we are, the services that we offer people, but also the kind of lives that we want everybody to have as a community together.”

“I’m really pleased that the London Borough of Sutton is signing up to the World Health Organisation’s Age Friendly Communities Programme, and am proud that Age UK Sutton is working in partnership with Sutton Council to deliver this programme.”

Councillor Ruth Dombey, Leader of Sutton Council, added: “I’m so pleased we’ve decided to make this a priority. We shouldn’t just value and respect older people living in this borough; we should also listen to them and understand their expertise, their years of learning, their skills and how much they can offer to people in the community.”

“We’ve done a lot of work around dementia, which is one small but important aspect of all of this. We’re thinking a lot about transport: we’ve got the Go Sutton bus, which is providing opportunities for people to get around the borough more easily. But there’s still so much more we need to be doing and that’s why we need organisations like Age UK Sutton to help us understand where we need to make these improvements and work with us to deliver them.”

Sutton Council and Age UK Sutton have committed to making the London Borough of Sutton an age friendly place to live, with support from partners across health and voluntary sectors, who work together on The Sutton Plan.