Social experimentation for active ageing: Edinburgh stakeholders interviews

The Edinburgh Stakeholder Interviews presented in this report are part of QeC-ERAN’s (European Areas Regeneration Network – Quartiers en Crise) ‘Social Experimentation for Active Ageing’ transnational project. The overall aim of QeC-ERAN ‘Social Experimentation for Active Ageing’ project is to address “the social needs of older people by seeking to improve social policy in relation to the social and economic activation of older people who are not being reached by current policy measures”. Four locations are taking part in this project (Prague, Czech Republic; Edinburgh, UK; Maribor Slovenia; and Herefordshire, UK), with each location carrying out a baseline study; a small scale social experimentation pilot; and a local evaluation. A transnational evaluation will also be performed. Edinburgh Stakeholder Interviews and the Baseline Study (which has already been completed) will inform Edinburgh’s pilot social experimentation study. The pilot social experimentation study will focus on older people and later-life labour-market participation, looking at age-management issues in, and into, the workplace. This document provides a summary of the information gathered from 11 face-to-face interviews with stakeholders, e.g. national and local government, employer representatives, employability organisations, trade union council and academics. Details of the people and organisations interviewed can be found in the Acknowledgments section at the end of the document. Interviews lasted between 30-60 minutes, and followed a semi-structured topic guide. To preserve anonymity quotes throughout the document have not being attributed. This report, based on a small scale qualitative research, consists of twelve chapters, each chapter matching a topic in the interview guide. Summary information from the interviews is provided under each chapter heading below. Similar to the Baseline Study, the findings of this qualitative study will be part of the final report, while this document will be an appendix to the report