Active Ageing: Extending Age Management Practices in Edinburgh's Businesses

1. LOCAL ACTION PILOTActive Ageing Extending good practice on age management policies and practices in Edinburgh’s businesses Vanesa FuertesProf Ronald McQuaid, Dr Valerie Egdell and Dr Emma Hollywood Employment Research Institute Edinburgh Napier University www.napier.ac.uk/eri

2. Structure of the presentation Local Action Pilot How is been established and developed How it relates to the baseline study Overview of the local action pilot In what ways it introduces “social experimentation” What steps have been taken to implement it What issues are emerging

3. Establishment and development • Meetings with local partners • Agreed to local pilot • Set up the Local Action Research Group (LARG) • Setting up the LARG • Policy makers (Scottish Government Older People and Age Team Equality Unit ) • Organisations dealing with businesses (Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce;Join Up For Jobs) • Employers (National Health Service Lothian; City of Edinburgh Council Economic Development; City of Edinburgh Council Corporate Services) • Organisations working with older people (Centre for Older Person’s Agenda; City of Edinburgh Council A City For All Ages; Jobcentre Plus;Scottish Institute for Human Relations) • Academic with expertise on the experiences of older workers • Trade Unions (STUC) • Individuals (Advisor to ACFAA)

4. Continuation (establishment and development) • Contact with local partners • Reasoning behind methodology and outcomes to be measured for the local pilot • Sectors and contact strategy for businesses • Tools for the local pilot • Transnational methodology/methodological framework • Focus group with 50+ unemployed people looking for paid employment

5. How it relates to the baseline study • Focus on attitudes and practices at various levels within businesses • Selection of sectors and size of businesses • Difficulty to asses the effectiveness and deficiencies, of the various guidance and workshops to promote best practice in age management • Explore gender and age bands within the 50+

6. Continuation (how it relates to the baseline study) • Stakeholder interviews • Identify and explore themes and issues regarding labour market participation for older people. Explore potential sectors and businesses for the case studies. • Stakeholders (11) • Organisations dealing with employers/businesses (ECC, JUFJ) • Employers (NHS, City of Edinburgh Council) • Age management guidance and workshop providers (EFA) • Policy makers (Scottish Government) • Organisations working with older people (COPA, ACFAA, JC+) • Academics with expertise on the experiences of older workers • Trade Unions (STUC)

7. Overview of the local action pilot • First wave of case studies • Social experiment workshops • Employers who took part in the case studies will be invited to participate in workshops that will focus on the business case for age management and existing good practice • Brochures specifically targeted at each business • Second wave of case studies and control group • Case studies will be re visited 6 months after the workshops and the brochure distribution • Analysis and comparison of data collected in the first and second waves of case studies

8. In what ways it introduces “social experimentation” • Social experimentation - “interest in some new program or a desire to determine whether an existing program is achieving its objectives”1 • The purpose of Edinburgh social experimentation is to determine if current tools and methods of promoting age management amongst employers are working and to establish if a new intervention, with the same aim, will yield better results • Measurable outcomes: • Awareness, policies, practices, attitudes and general work environment • Effect of interventions already in place and the effect of our intervention (social experimentation)

9. What steps have been taken to implement it • Communication sent to some sectors • To select 2 Edinburgh SMEs within each of the following sectors: care sector, construction, banking and finance, hospitality, manufacturing and the public sector • One employer has agreed to take part • Questionnaire developed • Awareness • Policies (recruitment, retention, promotion, training and retirement) • Practices (as above) • Attitudes (3 measuring tools) • General environment • Stakeholder interviews finished

10. What issues are emerging Time line • Baseline study distribution • Test Battery - Focus group of unemployed older people looking for work • Themes to be discussed:Reasons for ending paid employment; Type of job sought; Desired retirement age; Barriers to entering paid employment and how these could be overcome; Awareness and attitudes towards policy • Self completion questionnaire (includes questions from the Test Battery) - personal details, employment history, the type of occupation being sought, barriers to employment, social networks • Spider tool - Comparing attitudes before and after the intervention • Final report 10

11. References 1 Basic Concepts and Principles of Social Experimentation, Part 2: Social experimentation: evaluating public programs with experimental methods http://www.qec-ran.org/projects/SEFAA/documents/Orr-Basic_Concepts_of_Social_Experiments.pdf

12. Timeline: baseline and pilot back