The Commissioner for Older People has created the attached helpful resource. It brings together key statistics, evidence and research to provide an overview of people’s experiences of growing older in Wales that you might find helpful in your representation of older people in Wales.
| Cylchlythyr y Comisiynydd: Mai 2026
Mae dolen i gylchlythyr diweddaraf y Comisiynydd isod, sy’n cynnwys yr wybodaeth ddiweddaraf am ei gwaith dros y misoedd diwethaf yn creu newid cadarnhaol i bobl hŷn.
CYLCHLYTHYR Y COMISIYNYDD: MAI 2026
I gael rhagor o wybodaeth am waith y Comisiynydd ewch i https://comisiynyddph.cymru, neu dilynwch ni ar X / Facebook / LinkedIn.
Os nad ydych chi’n dymuno cael Cylchlythyr y Comisiynydd mwyach, gallwch ddatdanysgrifio yma, neu anfon e-bost at gofyn@comisiynyddph.cymru
| Commissioner’s Newsletter: May 2026
Please find a link to the Commissioner’s latest newsletter below, which provides an update on her work to deliver positive change for older people over the past few months.
COMMISSIONER’S NEWSLETTER: MAY 2026
You can also find out more about the Commissioner’s work by visiting www.olderpeople.wales, or follow us on X / Facebook / LinkedIn. |
Strengthening the Sector: GVS Launches New Member Engagement Event
Glamorgan Voluntary Services (GVS) is inviting member organisations to a free special engagement event designed to strengthen your organisation, amplify your voice, and enhance the collective impact of the Third Sector across the Vale of Glamorgan. This session offers a valuable opportunity to share the challenges you’re facing, highlight emerging community needs, and shape how GVS can better support you. Your insights will directly influence future priorities and ensure the Sector’s voice remains strong, unified and responsive.
You will also have the chance to meet our new CEO, Christine Boston, who will outline GVS’ current focus areas and her vision for working collaboratively with local organisations. The event includes an open discussion forum, networking opportunities, and a chance to meet the team behind our key services, including Funding, Governance, Volunteering, Health and Social Care, and Practical Support.
Book a place at one of our events:
Join us to strengthen your organisation and help shape a thriving future for the communities that you support.
Why organisations should attend
While Jim has enthusiastically written verse over the years, he admits he’s never been particularly committed to reading poetry, however acclaimed the writer might be. Jim was an evacuee during the Second World War, and while some classes were held in the nearby grammar school, he says he had a sparse wartime education, with no conventional English classes that would have introduced him to poetry in a formal sense, beyond a bit of Shakespeare.
Despite this, Jim and his fellow students were asked to produce poetry of their own, allowing them to be creative with rhymes. Jim isn’t entirely sure when poetry re-entered his life, but he thinks it might be when he had young children of his own who’d bring nursery rhymes back from school to read at home. When they did, Jim would take the opportunity to write versions of his own, replicating their metre, often with his tongue in his cheek.
At Christmas time, for example, he’d pen lines like ‘Jingle Bells / Jingle Bells / Santa’s on his way / But you can’t hear him in his new electric sleigh’, much to the amusement of his children.
“That might sound strange or silly as a way of writing,” suggests Jim, “but that’s what I did, and how my interest developed.”
Over the years, Jim has immortalised many events and family celebrations in verse – from the birth of his grandchildren to landmark birthdays. On his wife Daphne’s 90th birthday, for instance, Jim produced the following affectionate ode to the woman he’s now been married to for 75 years.
| Cylchlythyr y Comisiynydd: Chwefror 2026
Mae dolen i gylchlythyr diweddaraf y Comisiynydd isod, sy’n cynnwys yr wybodaeth ddiweddaraf am ei gwaith dros y misoedd diwethaf yn creu newid cadarnhaol i bobl hŷn.
Cylchlythyr y Comisiynydd: Chwefror 2026
I gael rhagor o wybodaeth am waith y Comisiynydd ewch i https://comisiynyddph.cymru, neu dilynwch ni ar X / Facebook / LinkedIn.
Os nad ydych chi’n dymuno cael Cylchlythyr y Comisiynydd mwyach, gallwch ddatdanysgrifio yma, neu anfon e-bost at gofyn@comisiynyddph.cymru
Diolch yn Fawr!
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Thank you for the invite. I attach the slides if you wanted to circulate them to anyone who was unable to attend yesterday. I appreciate we didn’t run through all of them in order, but I think we covered all the key issues in the discussion and by running through the sites on the map.
If any members wish to make comments, they can do so in the following ways:
All submissions must include a full name and either an email or postal address in order for them to be accepted.
– Access to Carers Assessments needs to be improved and the numbers undertaken increased substantially
– Where services are required to support carers they should be provided without constraints
– The resources available to Councils to support Unpaid Carers is woefully insufficient and in future should be increased and “ring fenced” in budget allocations
– Kinship Carers often miss out on support and responses to their needs should be included directly in the new Strategy
– Young Carers must be identified and helped at an early stage so that they do not miss out on education and social interaction
– The Carers Allowance must be reformed and the “cliff edge” for hours worked made more flexible/transparent.
Grateful if you could consider and comment, particularly if you are an Unpaid Carer and can give examples of what is needed
Ageism and Social Care – Submission to the Casey Commission
We are pleased to attach a copy of our submission to the Casey Commission – Independent Commission on Adult Social Care (England) https://caseycommission.co.uk/
The paper draws from the Ageism SIG online event held in December, and discussions with experts and input from the Steering Group, under the lead authorship of Dr Melanie Henwood. We had a very constructive meeting last week with Casey Commission officials where we discussed our analysis and recommendations and will be continuing to engage with them.
Our recommendations include:
Next steps – please help
We are now asking for ideas and evidence, from across the UK and internationally, to bring together a report that looks at how ageism in social care can be prevented and combatted. We are interested in examples of good practice and what works in services, support, and systems as well as practical ways to guard against ageism in policy development and implementation. Please contact us with your ideas, evidence, and suggestions of organisations and individuals that may be interested in contributing to this work.
With thanks and best wishes,
Heléna and Jane
Heléna Herklots CBE (Chair)
Jane Minter (Vice-Chair)
BSG Special Interest Group on Ageism
Help us create an environment in which people fifty and over can fulfill their aims and objectives in life. Fight age discrimination and help preserve and promote the independence, dignity and positive image of people fifty and over and work to ensure that they have appropriate and adequate public care provision.
All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by Martyn Jones.
