Seniors Network - Start a forum?

Caroline has a Doctorate in Health education and has specialised in Research and Training for older people since 1980.
Tony was, until retirement in1983, a senior trade union official. He was on the Steering Group for Forum to Forum and is active in the Bromley Borough Forum of Older People.

This booklet is available from NPC and Help the Aged. The authors stress that it is not a definitive guide and would welcome any comments

INTRODUCTION

What is a Forum?

Forums give pensioners an active voice in stating their needs and wishes on local issues. Forums are non-Party political. They deal with very local issues such as community care, the siting of a bus stop, removal of household waste, education and leisure provision for older people. Forums have their own executive or management committees to make policies and plan events. Forums feed views and concerns into these discussions and benefit from the perspectives of others in the community.

Why start a Forum?

The main reason for setting up a pensioners' Forum or any group with similar aims is to provide an effective and representative advocate for older people's views.

This leads to a further aim - to have a positive influence upon local policy making (and upon national policy in so far as it affects local concerns). Although a Forum is to some extent campaigning, it is important to stress its broad base in order to be acceptable to everyone, ie that it represents diverse groups of pensioners with different backgrounds, class and interests and is also ready to deal with a wide range of local issues.

Where to set up

Forums which cover a specific geographical area are the most manageable. This will probably be an area covered by one council, health authority, education authority, social services department, Age Concern group, centre for voluntary service etc (although the whole area will not necessarily be covered by any one of these bodies).

Reference can then be made to only one official or voluntary body for each field of responsibility. Not all the boundaries coincide - for instance, social work will be the responsibility of the local authority only if it is a unitary authority, otherwise it will be dealt with by the larger authority. Also a health authority may cover parts of several local authorities.

Frequently, the most manageable geographical area is that covered by the district council (borough council in London). This makes it easy to approach the appropriate local authority department and responsible officers. In many parts of the country, however, Forums have been set up on a local or neighbourhood basis, with the advantage of closeness to pensioners and intimate local knowledge of the locality.

It is for the pensioners concerned to decide how wide or large an area to cover.

One of the authorities concerned can be approached for the loan of a room in which to hold meetings. Town Halls can provide a useful and central venue and they are a community resource, irrespective of which party occupies them. Alternatively, your local centre for voluntary service may be able to provide you with suitable accommodation, or offer suggestions.

SUCCESSFUL ISSUES

Examples of local issues taken up successfully by local Forums are:

moving a post box to a more convenient location
having a bus stop moved nearer a community centre
having a pedestrian crossing put over a busy road
Securing standing representation on matters concerning community care
Persuading the local swimming baths to put on a local session for older people
Keeping a local police station open
getting housing repairs done more speedily
improving concessionary rates for evening (and day) classes
Securing an undertaking of more effective policing of a housing estate where many older people live

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