Cymru Older Peoples Alliance – COPA – held its Annual Conference and AGM in the Waterfront Museum in Swansea on 19 November. It was organised as a fully accessible and “hybrid” event. Apart from the Conference venue, virtual hubs for people to gather together and participate were established in Pontypridd, Anglesey, Caernarfon and Conwy, with other delegates joining from their home computers and devices. The Conference turned out to be a great success with over 50 people in attendance from all over Wales.
We had one main speaker for the Conference. Albert Heaney CBE, Chief Social Care Officer for Wales, Welsh Government. Albert spoke about the vital role of social care in supporting older people and providing services to keep them independent, He described the important progress being made to create a national care and support service and establish a National Office for Care and Support. Through a new national framework for commissioning of services, the aim will be to enhance outcomes for individuals, improve service accessibility and foster collaborative partnerships with service users. Albert emphasised the importance of improving the pay and training of the social care workforce.
We also had a “Question Time” panel with Rhian Bowen Davies, the new Commissioner for Older People in Wales, John Williams, Chair of Age Cymru and Mario Kreft, MBE, President of Care Forum Wales. We heard excellent contributions from the panel on:
- the Autumn Budget and the consequences and implications for older people in Wales and the services they receive
- how to tackle the problem of negative and harmful stereotypes about ageing and older age.
- how Welsh Government should improve NHS services for older people.
- solutions to the concerns of older people in Wales about being able to afford to heat their homes and able to eat enough this winter.
An “open Microphone” session was also held with statements made by delegates from all areas. The issues covered included winter fuel payments, age discrimination, digital exclusion, health and social care.
In the afternoon we held our Annual General Meeting. We approved our Annual Report and Accounts and ratified the appointment of Yvonne Apsitis and Dilys Jouvenat as new Trustees of COPA. We debated motions on COPAs campaigning priorities, the NHS and Social Care and Poverty in later life.
We do want to utilise the AGM and Conference as a springboard for the further development of COPA in the coming months and look at how we can reach out to Forums and Groups for older people, particularly those not yet fully engaged with us.
Minutes of the Conference and AGM can be found here [ ]