I should set out my credentials before I start. I am the youngest grandparent in the Government having seven grandchildren so for me being inactive is not an option! It was either go to boring Labour Party meetings or go on a date … and the rest is history.

We need to make sure that we widen opportunities for people so they can get the best out of their lives.

Opportunities aren’t just for young people to enjoy [and as we are nearing the reshuffle time I’m sure I won’t be the only Minister on the foothills of middle age voicing this opinion!]

We are short-changing older people and the country as a whole if we do not make the most of everyone’s contribution – if we do not act to remove the barriers that older people and others face in fulfilling their potential.

It’s the contrast between the past, the present and the future that I want to talk about this morning before turning to what I see as the three key challenges that All Our Futures presents.

Can anyone put their finger on the moment when our society began to turn its back on older people?

Over 50, forget it, you’re past it. Don’t trouble us.

Life should begin at 50, not end.

The Thatcher years epitomised this prejudicial attitude. Workers were sacked from being over the hill and with it the knowledge and experience in the company was lost. Discrimination in employment, access to services and not being allowed to make a contribution to society is morally wrong.

• Barriers to employment. Winning the Generation Game – the recent Performance and Innovation Unit report – made for sobering reading. It pointed to unemployment among older workers, most of whom did not leave work voluntarily. The cost was put at about £16 billion a year in terms of production and £3-5 billion in extra benefits and lost taxes. Those are staggering amounts of money even before the social costs are added in.

• Failures in the health service. The NHS ought to be a source of national pride. It was built on the hard work and sacrifices of older people but has become taken for granted.

We’re going to put that right but it cannot be done overnight. We have a sustained programme of investment and modernisation of the NHS. This year’s budget added a further £3 billion but there is no quick fix. Extra cash means nothing if people do not see an increase in the level of service that they receive. We have made a start:

• NHS Direct - quicker and easier access to health information, advice and treatment.

• Walk in centres

• Free eye tests for the over 60s

• Free ‘flu jabs

• new national service framework for older people

We all know that there is a lot more to do.

• Problems in arranging and paying for care. We promised a Royal Commission on long-term care and we delivered it but people have understandably become frustrated that no decisions have yet been announced. This is a complicated area where we need to take a rounded view both of the report and of differences of view within the Royal Commission. Consultation on a number of questions arising has recently been taking place and a White Paper on long-term care will be published, along with funding decisions later in the summer.

If Joe Soap who is disabled by multiple sclerosis changes his address in a move arranged by his local authority so that he can be nearer his family. What does he have to do?

At the moment he is likely to have to:

• notify the "old" Benefits Agency office in writing
  
• notify his old local authority that he has moved out and his new authority that he has moved in. Send separate notifications to the Housing and Council Tax Benefit section, the section dealing with liability for Council Tax and the Social Services Department;

• reclaim his Income Support at the new local office even though his circumstances have not materially changed;
  

• apply to the local authority’s Social Services Department for adaptations to his new home, providing evidence from his doctor that they are medically necessary. Social Services officials will assess his needs and take down details of his income (the same details that the Benefits Agency already hold) – help is means tested.

We have also set up an Inter-Ministerial Group on Older People to help co-ordinate policies affecting older people and, most importantly today, became involved in the Better Government for Older People programme.

I can’t say today that the Government will accept every dot and comma of the recommendations made as a result of the Programme but a quick look at them leaves me very optimistic that they will become part of the way public services develop in the years ahead.

The Programme’s licence to experiment and look at new ways of designing and delivering public services has produced recommendations that are wide in their scope and far-reaching in their implications. I am glad that they are because we should not rule out radical change if that’s what’s needed.

We will need some time to consider the implications of the recommendations and work out how they fit in with other work already in hand.

• For example, I’ve already mentioned the Performance and Innovation Unit’s report. We’ve gone further than any other Government in listening to older people. Some of you will have gone to one of the Listening to Older People events we held in partnership with a range of voluntary organisations last year. A smaller number might even have been at the national event held last month.

• That was where Alistair Darling launched Life Begins at 50, the Government’s programme of action to tackle the issues that were raised with us at the ten regional listening events and the event in Wolverhampton that focused on listening to people from ethnic minorities. Copies are available here today if you do not already have one.

• It contains details of new activity in a range of areas – from lifelong learning to leisure, volunteering, housing, employment, health and care. And all linked by action to improve transport. We want your views on Life Begins at 50 because your views are the ones that really count.

The Programme is a shining example of modernising government in action.

• Joined up policy making. The programme’s steering committee is itself a unique partnership between older people’s organisations, central and local government, key service providers and the academic world. Its strategy has resulted in a programme that works across traditional organisational boundaries to develop new solutions to shared problems.

• A user focus for services.

• High quality and efficient public services.

This has lead to practical improvements in services.

• a one stop Bereavement Centre with all the services needed to support people at this most testing of times.

• benefits advice road shows.

• Consultative committees of older people to plan improvements in health services and education.

• The better integration of transport and addressing mobility issues

• Better information for older people and more user-friendly publications.

So the Programme provides real evidence that Modernising government works and that innovation and change – which have so often been absent from public services in the past – are the keys to the future.

A key part of my role here today is to congratulate those that have played a part in the success of the Programme.

• I will start with our partners in the national programme – Age Concern England, the Anchor Trust, the Carnegie Third Age Programme, Help the Aged and Warwick University – as well as the others involved with the programme’s steering committee. They built on the work of the Warwick University Local Authorities Research Consortium and - with the tireless support of Martin Shreeve and the programme’s core team – have produced, directed and promoted the Programme.

• The local authorities involved in the programme have perhaps had to take on the biggest task in supporting it. They are the key providers of services to older people and it is right that they should be closely involved but not all stepped forward to support the programme. The 28 pilot authorities have established themselves as the leading lights of local government, the beacons that show the way for other authorities to follow.

• The local partner organisations – all 300 of them - also deserve credit for getting involved and trying to make a difference. Without their input the scope of the programme would have been much narrower and its impact much reduced.

• But the lion’s share of the credit for the success of the Programme undoubtedly belongs to the older people that have contributed so much of their experience, expertise and time to making it all happen. We are incredibly lucky in this country to have such a strong tradition of getting stuck in for a good cause. It’s something we neglect at our peril.

The Programme’s future lies in the promotion and spreading of best practice, for example through the programme’s network. It is also in the hands of those that must consider and respond to the programme’s recommendations. We must live up to that responsibility and ensure that we do not miss the opportunity you have created.

So that leaves three key challenges that arise from the Programme:

• central government’s challenge – to respond to the recommendations both in substance and in spirit. To work towards creating a political and cultural environment in which older people’s contribution is properly valued and their views are given due weight

• service providers’ challenge – to act on the Programme’s lessons, engage more directly with older people and set up and maintain real partnerships that focus on users’ needs. To go out and work pro-actively to promote new ideas and better services

• older people’s challenge – to continue to get involved and keep up the pressure for change.

I hope we all live up to those challenges. I am certainly going to play my part to the greatest extent that I can.

Congratulations on the achievements of the programme, thank you for all the effort you’ve put in to make it a success and enjoy your day today.