Age Concern Cymru Fringe Event: 'A New Age': Time to deliver for Older People in Wales' - Welsh Liberal Democrat Spring Conference, March 2007

Speech delivered on Sat 10th Mar 2007

I'm delighted to be chairing this important Age Concern fringe, here in Sunny Swansea.

My earlier career managing social services home care, gave me a vital insight into the importance and needs of older people.

Meanwhile, we're looking forward to celebrating my mother's 90th birthday in May - she cared for my father at home till he died at the age of 94, 4 years ago.

I'm fully aware of Age Concern Cymru's key role in representing and promoting the interests of older people in Wales, which like the rest of the UK now has a growing ageing population.

It is all too easy for politicians, media and the public at large to shrug off the problems that older people in Wales face, but also their valuable ideas for change.

There have been major developments on their behalf:

• The introduction of the Welsh Assembly Government's Strategy for Older People

• Establishment of the Commissioner for Older People

making massive strides in the right direction.

However, we must still take care to pay attention to the work done by organisations such as Age Concern Cymru that continues to highlight areas for improvement.

Age Concern Cymru's manifesto 'A New Age' encompasses valuable information about the real state of living for so many people across Wales.

Let's not forget that older people make a valuable and substantial contribution to life in Wales today.

As this manifesto reminds us:

• ¼ of all Welsh voters are older people

• and people over the age of 60 make up nearly 23% of our population.

We cannot afford to overlook the needs, cares and wants of older people in Wales.

Older people should not be shrugged off as a burden, but recognised as people with a huge contribution to make to society.

My mother's still a deacon in her local chapel and chaired the local Gobowen orthopaedic hospital Friends Group, spearheading substantial fundraising campaigns for 30 years.

However, many of these and other issues facing older people in Wales overlap - they're the same issues that face the vast majority of us.

Our solution when tackling these matters;

• sustaining communities

• improving access to and the quality of health and social care

• extending the contribution each of us can make to society

• housing and accessibility

• poverty and social support

is to be inclusive. They concern not just older people, but each and every one of us in Wales today.

Welsh Liberal Democrats are clear that health and social care services should be accessible to older people within their communities, as and when they need them.

Our policies are fair and inclusive and we have a firm commitment through our "health hubs " to improve community health and close-to-home care.

We would:

• streamline health and social services through a single pathway of care for patients

• introduce shared budgets for specific services

• provide financial incentives for organisations to work more closely together

• and simplify and stabilise the funding process for charitable and voluntary organisations, working with the NHS to provide services such as Palliative Care.

These policies would alleviate much of the pressure on budgets and services that currently confuse, frustrate and fail older people in Wales.

I believe our manifesto offers a real way of safeguarding and securing the future of communities throughout Wales, in line with the important suggestions of 'A New Age'.

For many older people, quality of life is severely diminished without local shops, banking services and social facilities. Sadly it is not until we actually lose our facilities that we realise their true importance.

We would seek to safeguard our communities, for example, financially:

• by establishing community banks, credit unions and LETS schemes

• and protecting the potential of post offices as hubs for credit union transactions and key activities.

'A New Age' raises countless other issues that I can't fully address now, but I am confident that our manifesto goes far enough to tackle the most pressing issues for older people in Wales today.

Once, hopefully, I return to the Assembly in May, I will look forward to working with Age Concern Cymru on the Cross Party Group on these issues and concerns.

I feel confident that working together we will make a real difference to the lives of older people throughout Wales.