Agenda item

The proposal to apply for an Age Friendly Wales accreditation for Gwynedd and ensure a broad ownership across the Council and its partners to the proposal to strengthen the age-friendly features to receive the accreditation, was approved and supported.

The report was submitted by Cllr Dilwyn Morgan.      

DECISION

To approve and support the proposal to apply for an Age Friendly Wales accreditation for Gwynedd and secure a broad ownership across the Council and its partners to the proposal to strengthen the age-friendly features in order to be accredited.

DISCUSSION

The report was submitted, and the member confirmed that it was National Intergenerational Week.  It was reported that 15 countries world-wide were taking part in activities this week, and there was great pride in the fact that Wales was one of four countries organising the events.

It was reported that there was close collaboration with Bangor University in the hope of establishing an Intergenerational Centre in Gwynedd.

It was explained that the Cabinet's permission was required to apply for the age-friendly accreditation, and should the application be successful, it would enable the Council to have ownership of the work and to lead on it. The officer elaborated further that Gwynedd was already doing a lot of age-friendly work and the accreditation would celebrate that. However, it was believed that the work would never be completed as there would always be areas to improve.

It was confirmed that officers had identified areas of work to develop should the application be successful.

Observations arising from the discussion:

¾   The officers were thanked for their commitment to ensuring a better future for the County's older generations.

¾   It was emphasised that the work involved with Age-friendly Gwynedd was not the sole duty of the Adults, Health and Well-being Department, and they hoped to have the entire Council's commitment to adopting it as a way forward.

¾   It was agreed that it was very important for the Council to be awarded the accreditation. The member noted the need to ensure that work was carried out following the application for accreditation, to ensure that facilities such as suitable housing and public transport were available to everyone.

¾   It was explained that the accreditation was being provided by the World Health Organisation and should the Council's application be accepted, the Council would have access to a global network that would offer support from designated officers.

¾   It was detailed that the World Health Organisation would consider Cyngor Gwynedd's application for Age-friendly accreditation through a report that specified a baseline of what was already being carried out in Gwynedd. The report would also detail the changes that Cyngor Gwynedd had already implemented in order to be age-friendly.

¾   It was explained that the Council was working jointly with the office of the Older People's Commissioner for Wales and the Welsh Government, and the first step of applying for accreditation was to send the reports to the Commissioner's office in order to receive support and recommendations to ensure that the report would be accepted by the World Health Organisation. It was mentioned that initial discussions with the Commissioner's Officer suggested that the Council's application would be successful.

¾   Members were reminded that this project was part of a project for Prioritising Preventative Support Locally by the Adults, Health and Well-being Department.