Services for older people must work together if they are to meet people's needs and aspirations effectively. Many different agencies work with older people, including many non-specialist services, such as transport, education and housing, as well as services that provide care. All too often older people receive a disjointed, confused response when they need help or advice. Frequently the responses that they receive meet their needs only in part.
Consultation with older people highlights the fact that they would like public services to be more flexible, better co-ordinated and more focused on helping them to remain independent for as long as possible. These aspirations will only be achieved if the full range of services that have a contribution to make work together in order to deliver better outcomes for older people.
A whole system approach, which places the older person at the centre, will benefit older people by providing the right support, at the right time and by addressing the entire range of their needs. A whole system approach will also involve older people as partners - both as individuals who express their needs and help to define the outcomes they would like to see and as a group of citizens and users of public services who have a voice in the way that services are shaped and delivered. For those who provide services to older people, a whole system approach encourages better management of the system and clarifies the roles and responsibilities of each agency.