Indicators of the independence and well-being of older people
Introduction
These pages contain information on indicators of older people’s well-being and independence that have recently been agreed to be used to monitor the effect that central and local Government strategies on ageing are having on the lives of today's and tomorrow's older people. These indicators are designed to be the first stage in the national development of a balanced assessment of quality of life for older people.
They will enable us to judge periodically to what extent - and where - we are succeeding in delivering our broad strategy for ageing and older people as set out in Opportunity Age.
A baseline report including data is now available – Independence
and
well-being of older people: baseline report (1.5MB) 
The indicators are presented under the five dimensions of quality of life that, according to survey work, matter most to older people.
These five domains were presented in Opportunity Age:
- Independence in supportive communities
- Healthy active living
- Fairness in work and later life
- Material well-being
- Support and care
A single overall measure of well-being is also included, to provide a general picture of older people’s quality of life.
The indicators are not targets for the strategy, either for central or local government (although some of the indicators used may, separately, be targets for particular departments), but taken together, they can show where there is progress and where we need to do more. These are not new measures and and utilise data that is already publically available.
As well as providing a basis for tracking progress nationally, we believe the domains and the indicators will help in the development and evaluation of local strategies for improving older people's well-being and independence, by showing what the key questions are and the sorts of data that can be collected. The national statistics may not be available locally, nor necessarily always be appropriate for each local area, but they provide a framework for local partnerships to build on. They are not intended in any way to form a basis for inspection or performance assessment procedures. Over time, however, we would expect central government and local authority performance regimes to reflect relevant elements of this approach as it develops.
Because the indicators mainly focus on outcomes rather than outputs or processes, they may sometimes move as a result of influences outside direct government control. For example, subjective assessments of health status may be influenced in a negative direction by changes in knowledge or expectations about the availability of health treatments.
However, as noted, these indicators are NOT targets; their primary aim is to illustrate the real situation and perceptions of older people so that strategy and policies can be adapted appropriately to circumstances which, indeed, may not always be within Government control.
Consultation on the indicators
The list of indicators has been drawn up in consultation with several Government departments, and with specialist external partners such as Help the Aged and the Audit Commission.
The domains into which the indicators are grouped, and the questions and outcomes for which the indicators provide a measure, were chosen on the basis of research done before and leading up to the publication of Opportunity Age. This included consultation with older people as to which areas are important to them and contribute to quality of life.
Responses to the original Opportunity Age consultation on the indicators have been taken into account in drawing up the list. The indicators were presented to the recently formed Opportunity Age Strategy Partnership Group, comprising relevant Government Departments and key external partners, whose comments have also been taken into account.
In general, the staged approach, focussing on a relatively small number of indicators which can be quickly monitored, has been welcomed. However, partners remain keen to see the further development of the indicators to fully reflect the subjective experience of older people themselves.
Future work and development
There are two particular areas where we currently lack any good headline indicators, and where further work to establish new measures is clearly required. The first is access to information by older people, where we expect to be able to develop measures later this year, with results available from 2007 onwards. The second is age discrimination, where further work with the DTI or the CEHR once established will be needed to consider ways of measuring and monitoring age discrimination.
We will also want to review our indicators against any forthcoming changes or developments in the PSA targets that form some of the indicators. We know that certain measures are under review and will need to ensure that the selection here keeps pace with those changes. Changing measures always pose some problems in establishing trend data, and we will need to balance the need for continuity with the need for improvement.
Finally, officials propose to work with the Whitehall Well-being Group, led by DEFRA, to consider how to develop and enhance the set of indicators to capture as fully as possible well-being and independence as experienced by older people themselves.
We intend to develop additional measures that we need to reach a balanced assessment based on the direct experience of older people to add to or refine this original set, and to publish progress reports biennially, starting in 2008.
Areas where indicators will need to be developed
Independence in supportive communities
Information and choice: At present, there is no data source which satisfactorily measures older people’s awareness of where or how to get information on such factors as benefit entitlements, financial management, health concessions and other useful services. Therefore, in the near future, we intend to commission questions in the ONS Omnibus survey to cover this gap.
Fairness in work and later life
Direct measure of age discrimination in the workplace: Although there are already indicators aimed at discerning age discrimination in the workplace, for example, those looking at employment and inactivity, these are not direct measures of discrimination. We will liaise with the DTI in developing a more suitable measure of age discrimination. The DTI have recently launched a new survey – the DTI fair treatment at work survey – which is likely to be of use in this regard.
Discrimination in the provision of goods and services: At present, more research needs to be conducted in this area before suitable indicators can be constructed. In many cases, it is difficult to differentiate between necessary and unnecessary discrimination in the provision of goods and services to older people. For example, older people tend to face higher insurance premiums than the rest of the population as they do generally present a higher insurance risk. However, it is difficult to identify whether the higher premiums are proportionate to the higher risk that older people represent.
Material well-being
Material deprivation: Material deprivation indicators attempt to gauge someone's material standard of living, through asking whether they "don't have" and "cannot afford" certain basic goods and services. Questions around material deprivation were on the Family Resources Survey for the first time in 2004/5. There are a number of issues around using the deprivation indicators for older people. Older people are more likely than younger groups to say that they don't want certain items: this raises questions about whether the indicators are things older people want, or whether older people are, for example, unwilling to say they cannot afford something. The DWP has commissioned research on the use of material deprivation indicators for older people, which will be published in July. The research flags up a number of issues in using material deprivation indicators for pensioners. Given these results DWP will be carrying out further analysis of material deprivation data, looking at how and whether we can use it for these sort of indicators.