Connected Communities for Healthy Ageing

The World Health Organization has recognised Greater Manchester as the UK's first age-friendly city-region. As our population ageing, we need to move faster to create and shape GM as a test bed and vibrant market place for innovators to develop and deploy their products and services to support residents in our communities and neighbourhoods.

The International Longevity Centre has described GM as the UK's most advanced ecosystem to be able to exploit the "ageing in place" market (Advantage GM: Unlocking the longevity economy for Greater Manchester).

Our Trailblazer will further develop our ecosystem by supporting the design and marketisation of products and services that respond to the multiple determinants of healthy ageing and reduce inequalities. Across GM we have many examples of innovations supporting citizens to age healthily, but they tend to focus on one aspect of older people's lives such as transport, or housing design, or culture and leisure. Our proposal will bring together the different organisations, industries and communities to positively influence people's health and wellbeing and to accelerate the sharing and dissemination of good practice.

A new agency for age-friendly design offering advice will enable homes and neighbourhoods to meet the changing needs of older people. Our ecosystem will be optimised as a marketplace for adoption at scale of healthy ageing technology products and services that support social connections, promote physical activity, and improve people's quality of life.

With appropriate information governance, we will use artificial intelligence and analytics to develop predictive techniques for identifying needs and targeting cohorts. An integrated platform for citizen engagement and co-ordination will ensure we deliver holistic, citizen-centred products and services and evaluate the impacts and outcomes that people experience.