Older people pose the questions at first Scottish Older People's Assembly
05 October 2009
Representatives of Scotland's older people fill the Scottish Parliament for the Assembly.
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon faced a grilling from older people from across the country as 300 delegates converged on the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on October 2nd for the inaugural Scottish Older People's Assembly.
This groundbreaking event was aimed at finding solutions to the challenges posed by our ageing population and establishing open and sustainable communications channels between older people and politicians and other decision makers.
Health, housing, discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services, transport, poverty and care provision all featured strongly, as did the obvious desire among those present for proper representation for older people within the corridors of power - a real Older People's Parliament based on the Irish model.
Nicola Sturgeon MSP addresses the Assembly in front of the Presiding Officer.
Ms Sturgeon said that as far as she was aware, the event was a "one-off", but it could be repeated if it was deemed effective. Johann Lamont MSP, Scottish Labour's Older People's Champion, said she hoped the Assembly would be the start of a "new dialogue with the country's older people."
The President of the Irish Older People's Parliament, Sylvia Meehan, and Ruth Marks, the Older People's Commissioner for Wales, highlighted the work they have been able to do in their respective countries to advance the older people's agenda, adding to the enthusiasm pervading the chamber for Scotland's older people to have more of a role in planning for their own and future generations' futures.
Participants sought assurances from the Deputy First Minister on the future of the Vale of Leven hospital in West Dunbartonshire, hospital services in Glasgow, sheltered housing in Stirling and an improvement in palliative care provision in the Western Isles and warned that finding answers to the problems that will continue to emerge as family structures, work patterns and economic and social systems evolve must be placed higher up the priority list.
There was significant media interest in the event, with BBC Scotland television and radio, STV, numerous radio stations, the Press Association, Holyrood magazine and Third Force News all reporting on the deliberations.
The Assembly's Steering Committee, comprising older people's organisations, charities, local authorities and trades union bodies, is putting together a full report of proceedings with recommendations for moving things forward to be distributed to MSPs, civil servants and other decision makers across the country.