One of the OP&H priorities is Combatting Loneliness in Older People. To date £4.2m has been made through 51 grants that primarily support group activities and / or one-to-one befriending support to older adults. We commissioned an external expert to review the grants (from the Mercers’ Charitable Foundation, the Charity of Sir Richard Whittington and the Earl of Northampton’s Charity). The aims of the review were to understand:
- What is known about the impact of the overall programme on loneliness
- Key themes emerging from across the programme which can inform approaches to addressing loneliness
- What lessons could be learnt around how to track the impact of work to address loneliness
Overall, the funding is helping organisations to ‘reach more people’ and ‘get better at what they do’. The report also makes several recommendations about what we should continue to do and how we can improve.