Sixty Plus

60 Plus Action Group

The Sixty Plus Action Group is a self advocacy project for older people. It’s aim is to inform, inspire, involve and empower older people in the planning, evaluation, delivery and continuing development of their local services and neighbourhood. This project was funded by the Primary Care Trust and the Lay Assessors Scheme by Brighton & Hove City Council.

The project started in 1997, and has grown to co-ordinate 11 neighbourhood and special issue groups across Brighton and Hove including Craven Vale, Kemp Town, Hanover, Moulsecoomb, West Hove, Valence and Brunswick. Issue groups included The Circle of Experienced Elders and the Black and Minority Ethnic group. Each group meets every two months and the members discuss areas of interest and concern. The main purpose of these groups is to facilitate user engagement with service planners such as Social Care and Health by contributing directly to strategic plans such as the Local Area Agreement. The groups also have the opportunity to talk personally to service providers at their meetings.

The Project also manages the Lay Assessors Scheme. This Scheme recruits older volunteers who interview domiciliary care service users about the quality of independent service providers. The information is fed back to the Local Authority Contracts Unit which funds this peer assessment quality assurance scheme. Each month 20 service users are interviewed in relation to one service provider.