Age Friendly Kingston

Kingston is home to 24,900 people aged 65 and over, and this is forecast to rise to 37,000 over the next 20 years. As people live longer, Kingston has made ageing well and enjoying an active and healthy life for longer a priority for the borough. 

For this reason Kingston decided to adopt the Age Friendly approach using a framework developed by the World Health Organisation in 2007 and well established in the UK by the Centre for Better Ageing. The framework involves taking action across eight domain areas to improve the social and physical environment for an ageing population that stay healthier for longer.

The eight domains cover - Outdoor Spaces and Buildings, Transport, Housing, Social Participation, Civic Participation and Employment, Communication and Information, Community Support and Health Services.
 
As part of Kingston’s commitment to becoming a more Age Friendly borough, the Council has worked to recruit and work with Age Friendly Ambassadors to develop an Age Friendly Action Plan for 2023-2027. 

The plan details current and evolving actions which aim to be taken in Kingston across the eight domain areas within an Age Friendly approach over the next four years. This action plan will require council and statutory services, leaders, businesses, local groups, and older residents to all work together to identify and make changes in both the physical and social environments, as well as changes in policy, practice, and communications of new or existing work. The plan also includes more aspirational and innovative initiatives that may depend on availability of funding or infrastructure changes, but should be an ambition for Kingston. 

Each year, specific priorities will be identified and progressed by the Council, partners and resident Age Friendly Ambassadors. 

• Outdoor Spaces and Buildings
• Transport
• Housing
• Social Participation
• Respect and Social Inclusion
• Civic Participation and Employment
• Communication and Information
• Community Support and Health Services

1. Outdoor Spaces and Buildings

The outside environment and public buildings have a major impact on our mobility, independence and quality of life as we age. Outdoor spaces and buildings in an Age-friendly Community will strive to be safe, accessible and comfortable for people of all ages.

In Kingston we want all community venues used for public meetings or activity spaces to be accessible and welcoming for people of all ages and to be proactively considering and communicating the accessibility of their spaces. We support the delivery of the objectives set out in the Green Spaces strategy and are pleased that Age Friendly Ambassadors were involved in the consultation process for the development of the strategy for 2024-2034.

Kingston residents should be able to make the most of a wealth of green spaces and riverside access in the borough. We want to ensure that walking and cycling routes are accessible to older people through appropriate facilities including benches and public toilets, and that there is suitable communication and awareness of these facilities to residents. In 2024, additional benches are being installed in a range of green and urban spaces across the borough to enable more people to enjoy these spaces. 

2. Transport

Affordable, reliable and convenient transport options enable older people to get out and about and continue to do things that matter to them. Whether it’s going shopping, meeting friends or attending an appointment, good transport is essential to everyone.

In Kingston, we want to engage with older people to understand if and what are the barriers to getting around the borough on public transport, taking into consideration transport planning and transport safety. We hope to be able to utilise this feedback for future transport planning within the Council and Transport for London. 

Active travel is also a major priority for Kingston. This means promoting safe and accessible options for walking and cycling. This is also an important priority for older residents who remain fit to travel locally under their own steam. Kingston, with the support of TfL is close to completing our borough-wide cycle network, making cycling a safer and more attractive option. We already provide support and classes to help those who may be out-of-practice or more nervous, whether they are cycling for transport or for pleasure and socialising. We will continue to listen to our older residents and develop these options - bringing them closer to residents to try out and build confidence. 

Transport for London supports the Age Friendly approach across London through their Equity in Motion strategy. 

3. Housing

The right housing and support can allow people to age comfortably and safely, in their community. 

Poor housing can have a huge impact on health, but when housing is considered as part of the age-friendly approach, it can help to maintain or improve physical and mental wellbeing, as well as social connections.

In Kingston we want to ensure people are able to stay in their own homes safely for as long as possible with the right support, such as using the Disabled Facilities Grant. We also look to ensure that future housing developments incorporate ‘Age Friendly’ considerations into their planning and are well connected to other parts of the borough. We hope to incorporate more opportunities to trial innovations to support wellbeing within Council housing such as physical activity offers, community outreach and intergenerational activity.

4. Social Participation

Participating in leisure, cultural and spiritual activities in the community is important for health and wellbeing, a sense of belonging and good relationships. Without social participation, people can experience loneliness and isolation.

An Age-friendly Community will work to make sure activities available in their place are as financially, culturally and physically accessible as possible.

In Kingston we want to create more simple spaces for people to meet for free and ensure opportunities for social participation are easy to access in a variety of ways, including for older residents and particularly in areas of higher deprivation and poorer health outcomes. We want to do more to promote community venues, Community Hubs and Be Well Hubs in the borough as spaces for information, social activity, as well as organised activities. An important part of this ambition is how to deliver impactful communications that reach the target audiences and encourage participation. As of October 2024, a calendar of community events and activities can be found on Connected Kingston with navigation tools to find events most suitable to the individual.

5. Respect and Social Inclusion

An Age-friendly Community enables people of all backgrounds to actively participate and it treats everyone with respect, regardless of age. Despite “age” being a protected characteristic, ageism is still prevalent nationally, and Age-friendly Communities seek to challenge this.

In Kingston we want to use our Council channels and to encourage other key stakeholders, businesses and services to consider how their processes and customer experience can be more ‘age friendly’ and provide more best practice guidance on this, including ways to celebrate and acknowledge the contributions of older people and carers to the community.

We want to consider ways to prevent social isolation of older people in extreme weather events and inform considerations and implementation as an essential part of our emergency planning and community support.

6. Civic Participation and Employment

Age-friendly Communities look to provide good-quality options for people pre and post retirement to continue to contribute to their communities and to work, not only to support themselves, but also use their skills, stay connected and remain physically and mentally active. Those options can include paid employment or voluntary work as well as being engaged in democracy.

Good-quality volunteering has a measurable positive impact on mental health. And paid work can benefit wellbeing as well as finances. Yet often, the opportunities for these diminish with age.

In Kingston we want to encourage local employers to sign up to the Age Friendly Employers pledge with the Centre for Better Ageing. Kingston Council made this commitment in 2023 and in doing so will be taking action each year to review or implement policies and practices to support a multigenerational workforce. In 2023, Kingston Council published a menopause policy for staff and in 2024 new guidance has been produced for staff on ‘preparing for retirement’. The guidance covers financial advice, mental wellbeing, opportunities for volunteering, and benefits of using their expertise, as well as learning new skills. 

We also want to promote volunteering opportunities for older people across the borough and consider the communications and accessibility of flexible volunteering generally. We want to learn from innovations inside and outside the borough to encourage more intergenerational participation through volunteering. 

7. Communications and Information

Staying connected with events and people, and getting timely, practical information is important for all of us, especially as we get older.

Age-friendly Communities seek to ensure information is accessible for those with varying resources and abilities – for example people who don't have English as a first language, those  who are digitally disadvantaged or excluded, have a sensory impairment or age related degenerative conditions such as those related to sight, hearing or dexterity.

In Kingston we want to continue improving our communications methods and deliver content that promotes positive images and messages about ageing and being active into older years. In 2024, we consulted with our Ambassadors to refine definitions and campaign messages that promote these objectives. We also produced a visual toolkit for communications and marketing.

The Move Well, Live Well campaign on active ageing used these tools and in addition, we used a range of digital and non-digital communication channels to promote physical activity offers across the borough for adults and older adults. The campaign linked to a curated collection of physical activity offers on Connected Kingston - which is Kingston’s Social Prescribing and community engagement and support website. We want to continue to develop content and promote the use of the Connected Kingston website for our older population through impactful and appropriate communications and support for getting online. 

Ensuring that we maximise all relevant council workstreams to optimise our Age Friendly impact - we are working in partnership with key teams and stakeholders, including those supporting the ‘cost of living’ challenges.  One example of this approach has been in response to the changes in eligibility for the Winter Fuel Payment. This data-driven initiative is designed to help ensure that all those eligible are accessing pension credit - and will therefore continue to receive the Winter Fuel Payment. In Autumn 2024, universal promotion and targeted letters were sent to residents to remind them to apply for pension credit where eligible. In addition, those just outside eligibility (up to £1,000 above the cut off for Pension Credit) are being targeted to apply for a payment under the Household Support Fund. 

We want to explore opportunities for more targeted, data driven initiatives and also non-digital communications and information to be accessible across the whole borough, for example more printed newsletters and more options for face-to-face support. 

8. Community Support and Health Services

As the older population grows, the need for community support and health services grows too. Alongside accessible and affordable health care services, community support and physical activity opportunities are strongly connected to good health and wellbeing throughout life.

In Kingston we are focused on increasing opportunities and levels of physical activity for the ageing population. In 2024, the Council supported an increased physical activity offer targeting older residents and promoted a range of community exercise opportunities through the Move Well, Live Well campaign. The campaign, which is ongoing, signposts people to curated collections of activities on Connected Kingston and also involved a Leisure and Activity Fair in the Guildhall Council Chamber in October 2024, free for residents to attend and connect with leisure and activity providers across the borough. We hope this will be the first of other, similar events in coming years. 

We want to focus on increasing the accessibility and awareness of support for mental wellbeing in older age and work with residents to understand how to break the stigma around mental health for older people. 

We want to ensure that health improvement services and health protection activities such as vaccinations and screening are accessible and appropriately communicated to older residents, particularly in areas of higher deprivation. 

We want to facilitate a more joined up approach to delivering health and wellbeing services and initiatives in places where people already go, to make offers more visible, more attractive and easier to access. We have social prescribers in many of our GP centres and therefore we also want to continue working with the NHS and health partners to expand and enhance social prescribing (connecting and signposting) within our ageing population.

Next Steps

The Council has committed to delivering actions across the ‘eight domain’ areas of the Age Friendly approach for 2023-2027. For each year of the project, specific priorities will be identified and key stakeholders engaged to support delivery of these priorities. Residents will be encouraged to be involved in the ongoing planning and delivery of the Age Friendly approach in Kingston as ‘Age Friendly Ambassadors’. An annual report will be published on the progress and achievements within the Age Friendly approach each year.