Older People's Strategy - Newcastle City Council

76Where we are nowIn 2002, Peter Fletcher Associates were commissioned toundertake a study into ‘that little bit of help’ in Newcastle.The first recommendation from the study was that older peopleneeded better access to information about the services alreadyavailable in Newcastle. This led to the development ofInformation NOW (see Aim 2).Another recommendation was to develop a register of reliabletradespeople, which led to the development of the TradesRegister provided by Anchor Staying Put in partnership withthe Quality of Life Partnership.This still leaves a number of other services which older peopleneed. There is great demand for a gardening service, shoppingservices (in particular access to good food), cleaning servicesand community transport. Some of these services alreadyexist, but often within small geographical areas, with particulareligibility criteria and with limited resources.Older people have a very important role to play in developingthese services, both advising on how they should be developedbut also in giving their time as volunteers or paid employeesto delivering the services.Access to technology is also key to enabling older people toaccess some of the help they need. Internet-based informationservices, shopping and banking schemes offer opportunitieswhich will increasingly become acceptable to older people(see Annex 7, Note 15).