While catching up with goings on at the Eisteddfod this week, I was pleased to see that Severn View Park – an innovative housing complex in Monmouthshire for people living with dementia – has won the festival’s Gold Medal for Architecture.
I visited Severn View myself soon after it opened to meet with older people and staff, and was struck by the real feeling of community there. Residents’ homes are centred around a ‘village hall’, which hosts a variety of events and activities, and surrounded by gardens and allotments, creating shared spaces for everyone to enjoy.
Ensuring that residents feel included and enabled to live a life that matters to them is a key focus of the care delivered at Severn View, something that’s supported by the welcoming and accessible environment.
Severn View is a good example of how planning and design can have a positive impact on people’s wellbeing, alongside creating opportunities for participation and inclusion – all crucial to support us to age well.
Planning and design shape the places in which we grow older and our experiences, not just in terms of homes and housing that meet our needs, but also in terms of our access to public services, transport, shops and green spaces. So it’s important to ensure everyone has opportunities to make their voice heard and influence decisions affecting their communities.
Yet while there are duties in place to undertake consultation and engagement, older people tell me this often feels transactional and superficial, particularly as there is often a perception that decisions have already been made by the time people have a chance to have their say.
In order to restore confidence in these processes, it’s vital that engagement happens from the outset to enable genuine co-production and for people to see how their voices and experiences are shaping action and outcomes.
Applying this kind of approach, not just in terms of community planning, but also across policy-making more widely, would create a virtuous circle: meaningful engagement leads to improved decisions, creating better places to live, increasing trust and encouraging even greater participation in the future.
And with many established local networks and partnerships throughout Wales already strongly focused on making communities more age-friendly, there are real opportunities to reach out widely and ensure that the voices of older people in all of their diversity are heard.
Engagement shouldn’t be seen as a hurdle to be overcome, but as a pathway to better, more sustainable outcomes, rooted in people’s lived experiences.
Severn View demonstrates what can be achieved with ambitious planning and design, made real through effective partnerships and supporting older people to have the best possible quality of life.
Moving forward we must ensure this becomes the norm, rather than the exception we celebrate.
