Technical Advisors

There is an Age Friendly Technical Advisor in every local authority providing specialist housing advice to members of the public and organisations.

A key principle underpinning the Government housing policy is to support older people to live in their own home with dignity and independence for as long as possible. The aim is to ensure that older people will have greater choice by developing a range of housing options that are suited to their needs, so they can plan ahead and, insofar as possible, choose the right home for themselves.

Each local authority has an assigned staff member as the local authority Age Friendly Technical Advisor. They provide specialist advice to the authority itself, to private sector organisations interested in providing age friendly housing and to the general public.

The role of the Age Friendly Technical Advisor is to:

• Act as the key point of contact for matters relating to age friendly housing technical queries specifically around designing for life and universal design principles
• Respond to and progress referrals and queries from a range of sectors including in house staff (particularly across Planning & Housing), external stakeholders & agencies, private sector developers, Approved Housing Bodies and individuals
• Provide clients with information on key contacts within their local authority who can discuss issues and solutions around age friendly housing and public realm works
• Refer to models of good/best practice in other areas and sharing technical plans and development specification
• Provide contacts, as appropriate, of people outside the local authority who might be able to provide technical guidance and assistance particularly in relation to universal design principles and crime prevention through environmental design principles

Age Friendly Technical Advisors