Ageing Well in Brighton & Hove

Councillors will be discussing proposals to commission Ageing Well services for a further 6 years at the Cabinet meeting on 18 July.

The Ageing Well Service supports people aged 50 and over and aims to reduce social isolation and loneliness, promote good health and wellbeing, and prevent ill health and enable people to remain independent. The service began in 2019 and the existing contract runs until March 2025.

Commissioning the city’s Ageing Well service will support the council plan objective to ‘support people to age well and make Brighton & Hove an age and dementia friendly city.’ 

Brighton & Hove population

According to the 2021 census, the population of our city has only increased by 1.4% (3,800), since 2011: However, this masks two important changes behind the data: 

  • the population of people aged 65 and over has increased by 9.5% to 39,100
  • the city now has 32% more adults aged 48 to 62 (13,826) 

There are also 13,875 residents aged 66 and over (38%) who live alone, which is significantly higher than in the south-east (30%) and England (31%) 

And there were approximately 9,271 older people living in income deprivation in the city (2019), 18.7% of all people aged 60 or over. This is the second highest proportion in the south-east region. 

Wellbeing support

Councillor Tristram Burden, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Public Health and Service Transformation, said: “The Ageing Well services have greatly enhanced the availability of health and wellbeing support in Brighton & Hove for anyone aged 50 and over.

“The kind of primary prevention that Ageing Well delivers is both cost effective and supports health and care services by reducing the risk of conditions such as frailty, preventable dementia, and falls. 

“Providing an integrated service, accessed via a single point of contact, has proven increasingly popular. We’ve seen significant year on year increases in the numbers of people receiving support, and it’s vital these services continue to support our population to age well.”

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