Older People’s Community Support Service

York is an attractive and prosperous city with a rich heritage; most people in York are employed, well educated, live in good quality housing and, overall, people living in York enjoy a good quality of life. York is ranked as the 17th least deprived upper tier local authority in England, although there are five areas that are amongst the most deprived 20% in the country .The city has a population of just over 200,000 and this is expected to rise by around 10,000 in ten years.

• The number of people aged over 65 is expected to increase by one-fifth, and those aged 85 years by just over two-fifths in the next ten years.
• There are 2,700 older people in York with dementia, this is set to grow to around 3,500 in the next ten years1.
• Across York, 14,000 older people live alone. In the next ten years this will rise to around 16,000 people1.
• There are estimated to be around 2,500 older people providing 20 hours or more unpaid care each week, with 1,800 of these providing more than 50 hours of unpaid care each week. By 2025, it is estimated that this level of care provided by older people will increase by 16%1.

City of York Council invite suitably experienced providers to tender for an Older People’s Community Support Service. The OPCSS will offer a wide ranging, innovate, flexible service to meet the needs of the older people living across York, providing support to maximise the older person’s independence and prevent, reduce or delay the need to access long term care and other statutory provision. Services will be provided by a staff team made up of paid staff and volunteers and should help to combat isolation and exclusion and help to keep the older person as part of their local community.