United Kingdom The South West has the highest proportion of older people and the lowest proportion of children in England and Wales: 38% were aged 50 or over in 2004 and projections suggest that the number of older people will rise by over 300,000 over the ten years, raising their share of the total population to 41%.

Bristol (394,000) is the ninth most populous urban area in England & Wales. It has the highest (8.4%) ethnic minority population in the region. However, at 16.2%, it has the lowest regional proportion of retired people. The city’s changing population profile will affect the allocation of public funds to different services, and an increasing older population may be expected to increase demand for a health and welfare-related services. Early retirement may exacerbate existing labour and skill shortages and workers approaching retirement age may be encouraged to remain in work. Policies to promote lifelong learning and flexible working patterns may help to ensure older workers retain marketable skills and help move them into retirement gradually. Ensuring older people obtain the benefits they are entitled to would go some way to alleviating problems associated with low income. Ageing is likely to increase the number of single person households and so increase the demand for housing.

Bristol’s newly established Department of Adult Community Care will provide social care services for older people, disabled people, people with learning difficulties and those with mental health problems. It will lead in assisting carers and helping vulnerable adults to live independently and safely. It will work closely with other organisations, such as Bristol’s Older People’s Forum, to:

- provide better services and to improve outcomes for older people who need social care support;

- commission high quality services at sustainable and reasonable costs;

- improve service user choice and involvement in planning and developing services; and

- help older people to participate and contribute as active citizens UK Government, Department of Work and Pensions (associated partner):
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has strategic and delivery responsibility for labour market and state pensions issues in the UK. In addition, DWP has a leading role across the UK in handling social inclusion issues, with responsibility for representing this country on the Committee for the social inclusion Action Programme and the Social Protection Committee. With responsibility for the UK's National Action Programme on social inclusion, DWP has a close interest in all transnational studies on social inclusion issues that involve the UK and seeks to work in partnership with lead organisations in optimising mutual learning from the projects and ensuring that such learning informs future social inclusion strategies. Experience Corps, London:
The Experience Corps recruits people 50+ to work voluntarily in their local communities and develop innovative projects to use the experience of older people. Our experience is that, if older people are to find self fulfilment and avoid social exclusion, they must be enabled to utilise their knowledge, skills and enthusiasms to benefit themselves and their local communities instead of being perceived as passive recipients of care; we wish to find ways of developing a common understanding and approach to these issues by all public service organisations. All personnel involved in the project have had considerable experience working with European partners and managing budgets in accordance with EU requirements. They also have a wide range of contacts within public service organisations concerned with the needs of older people, particularly those suffering from, or at risk of, social exclusion.