Age Discrimination
This resource guide provides information about legislation on age discrimination in employment and emerging issues in service delivery.
The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations came into force in 2006 and prohibit unlawful discrimination and harassment on the grounds of age. The regulations also ban unjustified retirement ages of below 65 and introduce a right for employees to request working beyond retirement age and a duty on employers to consider that request.
Practical tips and information
- Always consider the appropriateness of any age and age-related criteria that apply in your organisation, for example, service accessibility, recruitment and selection, training opportunities.
- Good Medical Practice requires you to base your clinical investigations on patients’ needs and the likely effectiveness of your treatment.
The following web sites have information on Age Equality (older people) in employment, accessing services and treatment choices.
Key Web Links
General issues
Department of Work and Pensions: Code of Practice on Age Diversity at Work.
The Help the Aged site (separate sections for England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales) has information on health issues for older people and outlines some of the barriers to good healthcare faced by older people.
The American Society on Aging includes on its site live web seminars and on-line learning as well as sections on Diversity Overview, Lesbian and Gay Aging and Online Multicultural Aging Network.
The Employers Forum on Age provides practical advice on all aspects of employment policy.
Abuse
Action on Elder Abuse is a national organisation collecting and disseminating information and promoting research. The site contains some downloadable information for healthcare professionals.
Consent
The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety contains the document, Seeking Consent: working with older people (pdf) (Northern Ireland)
Falls
The University of Leicester Outreach Library Service for Primary Care and Mental Health NHS Staff3 website has an article: ‘Falls in the Elderly’ (No. 34, March 2005), which is a downloadable PDF file.
Hospitals
The Help the Aged site has information on ordering End of life care: promoting comfort, choice and well being for older people at the end of their lives (Policy Press/Help the Aged, 2005).
Mental health
The Mental Health in Later Life site includes a range of information for people in later life concerned about having good mental health. The information is grouped in broad categories such as depression, medicines and drugs, and good mental health.
Rights and choice
Age Concern operates in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The available resources include Your Rights to Health Care: helping older people get the best from the NHS (2005).
Viewing the resource guides
Return to the list of resource guides.
Footnotes
- The Challenge of Age: the change agenda (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2003), p7. (return to paragraph containing footnote 1)
- http://www.dwp.gov.uk/opportunity_age. (return to paragraph containing footnote 2)
- NHS staff employed by any of the six Leicestershire Primary Care Trusts or the Leicestershire Partnership Trust are eligible to make use of the enhanced services of the Outreach Library. (return to paragraph containing footnote 3)