Creating inclusive futures for LGBTQ+ older adults

This #GoodNewsFriday, we celebrate the inspiring work of Safe Ageing No Discrimination (SAND), a community organisation dedicated to improving the experiences and increasing the expectations of LGBTQ+ people as they age in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin.

SAND is a community organisation whose goal is to improve the experiences and increase the expectations of LGBTQ+ people as they age in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin. They aim to fundamentally influence the way in which LGBTQ+ people and those who care for them experience and expect to experience ageing. They do this by identifying and addressing the barriers that impact LGBTQ+ wellbeing in later life, bringing about change in organisations’ working practice and tapping into influential policy-making channels.

SAND’s campaign to encourage health and social care providers and other organisations, groups and services which people may want to access as they age to make ‘pledges’ – practical actions to ensure their service is welcoming and inclusive. Pledges take the form of a covenant to be revisited and celebrated and groups and organisations sign up to 5 broad commitments and agree an annual action plan for change. Participating groups and organisations are invited to feed back and share their next year plan at an annual event.

The action plan is based on what is realistic in terms of size, capacity, and available resources by outlining why the organisation is undertaking this work, its specific actions, the changes expected to result and the evidence to be collected to illustrate the changes. SAND have indexed all their resources against the LGBTQ+ learning framework, which are now searchable for each domain in the framework, primarily domains A and B on history, terminology and social care delivery.

They have also developed resources around the leadership, tagging against each of the learning framework subject areas. Providers can use this to search and identify a tailored eLearning package. SAND’s work helps providers to benchmark what they have already done with their pledges and the covenant against the learning framework. As SAND works in a structured and systemic way, this has been motivating for organisations to develop capacity to engage with the learning framework in a sustainable way.

SAND has produced three short case-study films for Skills for Care to accompany the learning framework. These also form part of a larger suite of practical resources produced as part of a project in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin to embrace a culture of inclusion, where cross-sector service providers working with and for older people have made a commitment to embed and sustain inclusive practice.

Find out more about SAND and access the case study videos.

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