Over 50s Have Their Say In Latest Results From The People's Panel

New research from the People's Panel reveals the diverse experiences of public services among older people.

The People's Panel is a 5,000-strong nationally representative group which informs Government about what people really think about public services and attempts to make them better.

Key findings include:

• People between 50 and 59 who are still in full-time work lead very different lives to elderly people who depend on others for their care. Their attitudes to issues like electronic government, how the public sector deals with complaints and how much they feel involved in their local communities are very different;
• Older people are much more likely to vote than people in other age groups, and are keen on local democracy. But older people in socially excluded groups are less keen;
• Older people tend to be satisfied with the service they receive from GPs and NHS hospitals, and think that the public sector is better at providing information than the private sector. However, evidence suggests that they may also have lower expectations about services than other groups;
• Although older people are more likely to think that public services are ready to listen to their complaint, 85 per cent believe that they will need to be determined to get their complaint dealt with; and
• New technology will improve the speed, efficiency and convenience of public services, although some older people are concerned about using it, and would prefer to get their questions answered in person. According to qualitative research, older people's attitudes can change when they are shown how to make the most of new technology in a supportive environment. Many pilot initiatives under the Better Government for Older People Programme include schemes to train older people in the use of IT.

Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, Ian McCartney said:

"If people are to get the high standards of public services they deserve, the Government needs to know more about what they want. Rather than imposing solutions we must consult and work with people. That is why we set up the People's Panel - a world first - to tell us about what people think about our drive to raise the quality of public services and make them fit for the 21st Century."

"This survey reveals not only that Britain's older people have specific needs and worries, but that they have a wide range of concerns, including the quality of public transport, air pollution and the facilities available to the young people in their communities. People working in the public sector must work hard to ensure that they give people from all backgrounds, including the socially disadvantaged, a say in how our services are run. For our part, central Government has a high-level group working to ensure that older people's voices are heard."

"We have made a good start but more needs to be done. More than 60 per cent of older people believe that public services are better at listening to complaints than they were a few years ago. However, we must ensure that the use of new technology to improve our public services does not isolate older people, who may prefer to get their questions answered in person rather than over the phone or through the Internet."

DSS Minister Jeff Rooker, Chair of the Inter-Ministerial Group for Older People, said:

"Retirement should be a time that everyone looks forward to. We are already taking action and introducing improvements in a joined-up way across the full range of government services, including pensions, transport, employment, health and care services."

"This Government is committed to consulting older people. Ministers from different departments attended a series of listening events for older people across the country last year. The views expressed to Ministers, by older people direct, will help the Government shape future services to better meet the needs of older people."

"The Government is already taking action to help pensioners boost their incomes - introducing Winter Fuel Payments, a Minimum Income Guarantee and free TV licences for all elderly people over 75."

Issue No: 4 of the People's Panel newsletter Older People Have Their Say [pdf format - 78K]

People's Panel final toplines:

Part A: Face-to-face [pdf format - 130K]

Part B: Telephone [pdf format - 35K]

Part C: Telephone Wave 3: Post Office Counters Topline results [pdf format - 80K]

1. Media copies of the summary of results are available from the Cabinet Office press office on 020-7270 0043. Other copies are available from the Service First Publications Line on 0345-223 242.
2. The People's Panel consists of 5,000 members of the public who are representative of the UK population as a whole in terms of age, gender, regional distribution and a wide range of other demographic indicators.
3. The Panel provides a database of individuals that can be drawn on for consultation and qualitative or quantitative research. It can be used to track attitudes and opinions about public services and find out why these change. Researchers can also use the Panel to assess the views and attitudes of people who do not use particular services as well as those who do.
4. The Government has improved the quality of life for older people. An extra 1634 billion a year, in real terms, will have been spent by the end of this Parliament on benefits for pensioners. This includes:
   • a five-fold increase in the winter fuel allowance from 16320 to 163100 this winter and subsequent years for all pensioner households;
   • a minimum income guarantee to raise the standard of living for the poorest pensioners with a minimum income of 16375 a week for single pensioners and 163116.60 for couples;
   • 200,000 pensioners have been taken out of the tax system;
   • eye tests for the over 60s are now free; and
   • free TV licences for all pensioners over 75 from next autumn.
5. New special grants worth nearly 163650 million will be spent on improving public services over the next three years. Some of this money will go to recuperation and rehabilitation services for older people, addressing the need for both health and social care.
6. The Government's Listening to Older People events have given older people across the country opportunities to tell ministers directly about their needs and priorities for action and research has been conducted into the attitudes and aspirations of people in this social group.
7. Better Government for Older People is a programme of 28 local projects pioneering better ways of consulting and involving older people and designing public services that are more responsive to their needs. (For more information about the programme, ring 01902-824 270 or visit www.bettergovernmentforolderpeople.gov.uk)
8. The Inter-Ministerial Group on Older People works to co-ordinate Government policies affecting older people.
9. The Modernising Government White Paper, published on 30 March 1999, sets out a programme for transforming the way government works for people. A key commitment given in the White Paper is to make public services more responsive; in other words, for services to meet the needs of people, not the convenience of service providers. To achieve this, the Government needs to know more about what people want and to consult and work with the public rather than to impose its own solutions. The People's Panel plays an important role in helping the Government to understand what people really think about their services and what needs to be done to make them better.

Technical details

These results are based on a re-analysis of the data from the first three waves of People's Panel Research, based on a universe of all those aged 50+. All data are weighted to the known profile of the population (sex, age, class, work status, tenure, geographical region, MOSAIC area, car ownership and household composition). The technical details of each wave are reproduced below:

• Recruitment Wave: MORI recruited 5,064 Panel members, of whom 2,145 were aged 50+. Interviews were conducted face-to-face, in home, between 20 June - 30 September 1998 across the United Kingdom, in 714 ED sampling points.
• Wave 2: MORI interviewed 3,003 recruited panel members of the 4,792 Panel members who had telephone numbers. 1,159 of these were aged 50+. Interviews were conducted by telephone, between 10 August - 5 November 1998 across the United Kingdom; they followed the initial 52 minute recruitment survey.
• Wave 3: MORI interviewed a representative sample of 1,003 Panel members, of whom 396 were aged 50+. Interviews were conducted by telephone between 6-13 April 1999 across the United Kingdom. For the survey conducted for the ODPM (DTLR) on attitudes towards social housing, 1,000 interviews were conducted in England only, 401 of whom were aged 50 and over. ]