Demographic growth

In the Chief Medical Officer’s annual report 2023: health in an ageing society, Professor Chris Whitty notes that: 

“The great majority of people move out of cities and large towns before older age, concentrating geographically in coastal, semi-rural or peripheral areas, often with relatively sparse services and transport links... Providing services and environments suitable for older adults in these areas is an absolute priority if we wish to maximise the period all older citizens have in independence. The provision of health and social care also needs to be concentrated in these areas.”

There has long been a focus in Gloucestershire on supporting people to maintain their health and wellbeing and remain at home as long as possible through our ‘Make the Difference’ approach.

Since our last MPS we have supported more people to live at home for longer (over 8% increase in packages between 2022 - 2023) and fewer people to enter residential care, the expected growth in the older population, particularly in the older age brackets, will increase the demand for care services significantly over the next 10 years. Already we can see there is a rising demand for domiciliary care and an increased need for bed-based nursing and dementia care.