Anchor’s long-running Grey Pride campaign calling for a Minister for Older People has been boosted by The Daily Express

Anchor’s long-running Grey Pride campaign calling for a Minister for Older People has been boosted by The Daily Express.

The national newspaper has run a front page story calling for such an appointment and Anchor’s Chief Executive Jane Ashcroft CBE is quoted extensively.

Anchor has been calling for a Minister for Older People for the past six years but the need for a dedicated minister has never been greater than now.

In 2011, 137,000 people signed a petition for a Minister for Older People, and organisations working with older people, celebrities, including Esther Rantzen, and more than 100 MPs supported the campaign. Labour appointed Liz Kendall MP as the then Shadow Minister for Older People.

Jane Ashcroft said: “We welcome the Daily Express’s campaign as now is the time for the government to act and ensure that the needs of our ageing population are addressed.

“The major areas of concern for older people - housing, health and social care - are currently spread across different government departments.

“These can only be efficiently addressed by the appointment of a Minister for Older People who will ensure there is joined up thinking between these departments and older people’s issues are resolved holistically.

“Only through a dedicated Minister can Government send a clear message that it is serious about addressing the needs of today’s and future generations of older people.”

The Grey Pride campaign has called for better alignment of health and social care, which Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has outlined as a key priority for the upcoming Social Care Green Paper. Other healthcare policies include increasing the number of staff on older people’s wards, and more assessments to identify frailty and identify the risk of falls. 

For housing, Anchor would like the Minister for Older People to create a national task force of developers, ministers, and local governments. It would be their role to produce a national strategy for increasing the supply of retirement housing and ensuring all local authorities have a robust housing strategy for older people. 

For social care, Anchor would call on the Minister to lead on finding a sustainable funding solution for social care once and on the launch of a hard-hitting public campaign encouraging people to save for the cost of care.

More information on the Grey Pride campaign and its manifesto can be found here.