Making North Tyneside an Age Friendly Community

In 2023, North Tyneside’s Health and Wellbeing Board agreed that partners should work together towards making North Tyneside an Age Friendly Community.

The World Health Organisation describes an age friendly community as: “a place that enables people to age well and live a good later life. Somewhere that
people can stay living in their homes, participate in the activities they value, and contribute to their communities, for as long as possible”.

In the UK, there is a network of over 80 age friendly communities. North Tyneside’s Health and Wellbeing Board wants North Tyneside to be part of this network, enabling
our older people to live happy healthy lives for as long as possible.

This is increasingly important as projections indicate that our older population is set to grow significantly – it is expected that in North Tyneside between 2020 and 2030, the number of people aged 65-74 will increase by 16.2% and people aged 75+ will increase by 30.8% (North Tyneside Council Adult Social Care Strategy, 2025-26).

Age UK North Tyneside were asked to lead the push to make North Tyneside an Age Friendly Community.

A key starting point for this work is understanding what residents think about ageing in the Borough. Healthwatch North Tyneside led the engagement and involvement activities, the results of which are summarised in this report.

Some older residents of North Tyneside have supported in the reviewing of the data and drafting of the actions.

A further report, providing more detail about each of the areas investigated, will be published separately.