Age Friendly Cities and Counties Handbook 2014
Appendix Chapter 4
Older Peoples Council – Terms of Reference
Aim
The Older Peoples Council is, in many ways, the key group of the Age Friendly Counties
Programme. It brings the concerns and experiences of older people to the Alliance and
the voice of older people to the decision making process of the Age Friendly Initiative
throughout the City/County.
Purpose of the group:







Ensure that older people in -------- participate in the decisions which affect their lives.
Provide an active channel of communication between the Older Peoples Council and
the Age Friendly Initiative.
Provide the opportunity to comment on and influence Age Friendly City/County
strategies, plans and projects.
To work cooperatively and represent the views of older people at local, regional and
national level
Identify and inform key actions for implementation with the Age Friendly City/County
Alliance and strive to achieve a number of the objectives in the Age Friendly
City/County Strategy as a Council.
Monitor the arrangements across the county in relation to implementation of the Age
Friendly City or County Strategy.
To represent the views of older people, and keep older people up to date on key Age
Friendly County initiatives and structures.
Membership of the Council:
Membership will be made up of individuals and group representatives who submit a
membership form and will be representative of the city or county as a whole; both rural
and urban and strive to achieve a gender balance across the county.
Executive Membership:
The Chair of the Group should be:
-
Independent of the agencies involved with the Age Friendly Alliance.
Elected by members of the committee and re-appointed bi-annually
Supported by a formally elected vice chair (who must likewise be independent of the
agencies involved with the Age Friendly Programme)
The Chair is responsible for:
-
Chairing both the OPC and the Executive of the OPC.
Ensuring the needs of all ages are addressed through the agenda and conduct of the
meeting
Facilitating consensus decision making amongst members as best as possible.
Representing the collective views of the Older People’s Forum on the Age Friendly
City/County Initiative Alliance.
Public Relations Officer role: (Is this a significant role?)
-
Work with the Steering Group of the Age Friendly Alliance to ensure regular articles
put into local paper.
Ensure there is a section on Executive meeting to gather news and events from around
the City/County regarding activities for older peoples.
Working with local news paper to make this section more user friendly for older people.
Ensuring local media outlets are used to provide positive and interesting information
with regard to older people.
Keep information leaflet up-dated.
Secretariat: (is this a significant role?)
The secretariat will be provided by the Age Friendly City/County Alliance – the purpose of
the Secretariat is to:
-
Build, maintain and support the Older Peoples Council.
Take responsibility for general administration for meetings, booking venues,
preparation of minutes, agenda etc to the Chair for approval.
Note: should we mention time commitment/cost structure for these roles?
Executive Committee of the Older Peoples Council
Purpose of the Executive:


To actively organise meetings and ensure widespread participation within the county.
To organise annual general meeting(s) and ensure all members receive updates and
information in relation to the Age Friendly City/County Initiative.
Membership of Executive:
-
The Chair, Vice Chair and PRO will be core members of the Executive.
The Chairperson will convene meetings with the support of the Steering group
secretariat.
Interested parties may be co-opted onto the Executive in relation to specific projects
and if the full group is in agreement.
-
The appropriate number of Executive members ranges from 12 to 20 members,
depending the population of the county and other relevant considerations.
Meetings:
-
Meetings of the full Council will take place at least once a year.
Meeting agendas to be sent out prior to the meeting for comment by members.
The Chairperson can convene a meeting outside of the bi-annual meetings if deemed
necessary.
The Executive will at least four times per year.
Terms of office:
-
Members of the Executive will serve a term of 2 years to ensure that there is
consistency in work undertaken for a period of time.
Members can serve two terms consecutively if re-elected.
At the end of this term, all of the Executive Committee members will step down
and the Forum will nominate new Members.
If a Member fails to attend two meetings of the Executive without giving notice
he/she will face automatic removal from the Executive.
Quorum- half the membership plus one.