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The challenge of ageing in tomorrow's Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2000

MIRIAM BERNARD
Affiliation:
Centre for Social Gerontology, Keele University
JUDITH PHILLIPS
Affiliation:
Centre for Social Gerontology, Keele University
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Abstract

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Some 50 years after the creation of the welfare state and at the start of the new millennium, this paper considers the current and future status of older people in Britain. It argues that as the population ages, the situation of older people is becoming an increasingly important element in social policy debates. The first half of the paper critically reviews developments over the last five decades, emphasising the salience of accommodation issues during this period. In the light of recent initiatives such as ‘Better Government for Older People’, the second half of the paper outlines a policy agenda for the early years of the 21st century. We argue unequivocally for an integrated social policy which addresses the broad needs of an ageing society as opposed to narrow age-based interests, or the interests of specific problematised or stigmatised groups. The creation and delivery of such an integrated policy for tomorrow's Britain rests, we contend, on three crucial dimensions: an explicitly articulated value base; a consideration of the educational, technological and spatial aspects of policy; and harmonisation of action at both local and national levels.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2000 Cambridge University Press

Footnotes

This paper is an amended and shortened version of the review and arguments we put forward in the opening and closing chapters of our (1998) book: The Social Policy of Old Age – moving into the 21st century. The publishers of this book, the Centre for Policy on Ageing, have given permission for the material to be reproduced here.