Annual Review

We are pleased to share the Age UK Richmond Annual Review April 22 – March 23

Another busy year for Age UK Richmond!

It was great to see so many older people engaging with community and social activities. This has been the first year since 2020 that the pandemic did not have a significant impact. However, it was also evident that for some older people it continued to affect their level of confidence.

We continued to provide a wide range of social and wellbeing groups & activities – both in person and online - across the borough. These included exercise classes, outings, walking football, lunches, coffee mornings, pub lunches, befriending, activities for the most isolated at home and learning opportunities among many others.

To help older people reintegrate back into the community, we launched our Travel Companions Service, helping older people feel safer and build confidence when making local journeys and getting out and about. We also continued to deliver our highly successful Connect to Tech project – building digital skills to help older people stay connected and access online services.

Partnership is crucial to us. Dementia Friendly Richmond continued to expand – creating new partnerships to continue our drive to make Richmond a more dementia inclusive place to live. We continued to work closely with the 19 local charities who are part of the Age UK Richmond led Community Independent Living Service (CILS) Partnership, supporting vulnerable adults of all ages.

We also expanded our Nightingale hospital discharge service, supporting more older people when they were discharged from hospital or became unwell – providing essential support to help them settle back in at home.

Our handyperson, gardening and housekeeping teams continued to support people at home – and we developed a new partnership to fit free energy saving devices for some of the most vulnerable during a period of high energy prices.

Cost of living crisis

The year saw the continued impact of the cost of living crisis. Although perceived as a wealthy borough, the level of demand for financial advice & support from local older people was at the highest level we have seen.

We are grateful to those who support our work - including our funders and donors. Thank you to our staff, volunteers and the older people we support.

Download our Annual Review to see the positive impact we have made.

Here's to another fantastic year!

Gavin Shand
Chief Executive