Older People's Strategy - Newcastle City Council

7The first draft of the strategy, in December 2006, was developedfollowing discussions and workshops with a wide range ofgroups, organisations and older people in Newcastle – includingan event with Elders Council members (September 2006) and theQuality of Life Partnership stakeholder event (November 2006).Between December 2006 and March 2007 we took the strategyto a wide variety of local groups, residents, and organisationsto get their views and since then the strategy has been revisedwhere possible to reflect the changes that people wanted to see.More details about the consultation process, who we spoke toand what’s changed as a result can be found in Annex 4.Understanding the challenges of ageing populationPlanning for the future has become increasingly important forindividuals and for society as the population ages. Already, justover 30% of the population in Newcastle is aged over 50, andthis proportion is set to grow further. This significant change hasimplications for everyone. It is important that through this strategywe use our knowledge of how we age, what we can do to age well,how technologies, services and the ways in which our communitieswork can help us to enjoy a good quality of life as we grow older.In this strategy we look at people aged over 50, because this isincreasingly the starting age that is used by government indeveloping policy for an ageing population. It is also the age atwhich people may make lifestyle changes which have an impacton their later life or take on the care of older relatives and friends.Older people are not a homogeneous group. There aredifferences of culture, social class, life-style, health andexpectations, just as much as with any other age-group of