How to Get Involved
With your support, we can ensure every one of Scotland's 32 local authorities appoints an Older People's Champion to ensure local decision making reflects older people's views and needs.
We’ve listed three ways you can help below:
Write to your Council Leader
If you live in one of the local authorities without a Champion, please add your voice to ours by writing to your council leader to tell them why you support our campaign.
We have created this template letter which you can use and adapt. You can also find the text of the letter below to copy and paste it from this page directly.
If you'd like a physical copy of this template letter, please email campaigns@agescotland.org.uk or call 0333 32 32 400.
Find your council leader’s contact details by clicking here. You could also use the template letter to write to your local councillors, even if they are not in the administration.
Write to your Council Leader
If you agree that every council should have an Older People's Champion, please write to your council leader to ask them to appoint one!
Use our template letter to contact your council leader:
[Date]
Dear [insert name of Council Leader],
Older People’s Champions Campaign
I am writing to seek your support for Age Scotland and the Scottish Older People’s Assembly’s (SOPA) campaign for every local authority in Scotland to establish the role of Older People’s Champion and to appoint a councillor to the position.
An Older People’s Champion is a councillor who acts as a link between the council and older people in the local area. More than half of local authorities in Scotland now have a Champion/s in post, but I understand that the role does not exist here yet. As such, I would welcome the consideration of the creation of the role for our council.
With a growing older population, it is vital that local decision-making meets the needs of older people and that councillors have a better understanding of these. Local authorities are responsible for providing and supporting so many services which older people rely on – such as public transport, social care provision and community services.
As many local authority budgets are under pressure and as we all attempt to cope with the rising cost of living, older people need someone specifically tasked with standing up for their interests and finding out what they need from local decision-makers. Importantly, there is no budgetary implication attached to this role.
Age Scotland and SOPA also facilitate a network of Older People’s Champions, bringing together Champions from across Scotland to discuss issues affecting older people at local and national level. The group allows Champions to work together on shared challenges and collectively influence for change. It would be beneficial if our area were represented.
I hope that you can support this campaign and will establish the role of an Older People’s Champion for our council. I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
[Your name]
[Address and post code]
[Email]
Sign our Petition
We’re collecting the signatures of those who support our campaign. Click here to sign our petition – you’ll be asked for your name and which local authority you live in.
You can still sign in support even if your local authority already has a Champion.
Don’t worry, we’ll keep your data safe and it will only be used for the purposes of this campaign, unless you give us permission to contact you in future. You can find our full privacy policy here.
Sign our Petition
Every signature means we are closer to ensuring councils listen to the needs of older people.
Share our Campaign
Sharing our posts about the campaign on Twitter or Facebook will really help us spread the word.
You could even create your own posts, though if you are doing this please tag us in on Twitter (@agescotland, @Scotopa) and Facebook (/agescotland, /scotopa) so we can share your posts. Remember to use #OlderPeoplesChampions.
If you're not on social media you can still share our campaign by word of mouth with friends and family - could you encourage them to sign our petition or write to their council leader?