Improving life expectancy in the Gateshead 50+ population

Gateshead 50+ is dedicated to helping people get the very best out of later life. From pickle ball matches to ukelele practice, yoga classes to line dancing, here’s how the charity strives to make Gateshead a great place to grow older and how the Greggs Foundation is helping to support their work.

“It’s become a bit of a running joke here at Gateshead 50+ but there’s no better way to describe what we do than by saying we’re a youth club for older people,” says charity CEO, Craig Bankhead.

First established in 2003, Gateshead 50+ (originally known as the Gateshead Older People’s Assembly), was set up to provide opportunities to socialise, exercise and learn for people who might otherwise find themselves isolated or disconnected from their peers as they age.

Located at the junction of three of the most deprived of the 22 wards that make up the borough of Gateshead, the charity has become a community hub for hundreds of people each month – enriching lives and nurturing connections in the process.

Statistically, men in the borough live for 15.1 years less and women live 13.9 years less than those in the most affluent areas of the country – figures often attributed to poor health, isolation and income deprivation. Gateshead is also home to a large proportion of pensioners living in poverty, many of whom are widowed or caring for family members.

Craig explains,

“Our core focus is on improving healthy life expectancy. We engage with people as early as possible – before they identify themselves as being ‘old’ – and offer a service that improves their chance of living a free and fulfilling life for much longer.

“Gateshead’s healthy life expectancy is currently around 62 years of age but we know it can be much higher than that with the right focus on health, wellbeing and independence.”

Each week, Gateshead 50+ delivers an array of varied and fun activities that include a Never Too Old to Rock group, Tai Chi classes, singing sessions, craft groups and even pickle ball matches. In total, the charity delivers around 100 sessions per month – 90% of which are offered completely free of charge.

The concept is that the organisation delivers “health by stealth”, working to support beneficiaries’ wellbeing and independence in an informal and relaxed setting, rather than a prescribed health regimen. 

As Craig is keen to stress, it’s important for Gateshead 50+ not to be confused with the “care” provision one would find in a home setting:

“We are conscious about avoiding negative stereotypes associated with ageing. That’s why we changed our name to Gateshead 50+ in 2024 – and that shift has already brought down the average age of our beneficiaries by four years.

“This is particularly important because helping people to focus on their health and wellbeing earlier is a valuable preventative measure that keeps physical and mental health issues at bay. As a growing body of research shows, early intervention and giving people activities to look forward to each week can have genuinely positive outcomes. 

“Many of the people we work with are pensioners who no longer have their work community to interact with on a daily basis. Some are recently bereaved and have lost a partner or spouse; others (18%) are caring for loved ones and find huge benefit in an hour or two’s respite each week?

“We also believe that life-long learning has a part to play in socialising and mental health. That’s why we run a series of Lunch and Learn sessions where expert guest speakers cover topics such as Scam Awareness, Walk Leader training and Dementia Friends training.”

Activities shaped by beneficiaries

The team at Gateshead 50+ are at pains to ensure that their service is never prescriptive. Instead, beneficiaries help to lead the range of activities they participate in – whether that’s cookery classes, indoor cricket, sign language lessons or even curling competitions.

Just as important as the activities themselves, according to Craig, is the camaraderie that comes from the social opportunities around the 25 weekly sessions:

“People come for the walking football or the singing sessions but they also get here early to have a cup of tea and a chat . . . or stay afterwards to keep the conversation going.

“Many older people’s organisations have minibuses that bring people to their centres, but this is not something we do at Gateshead 50+. Encouraging people to travel here by bus, using their bus pass, or by arranging car shares, helps them to maintain their independence for as long as possible

“There is, of course, an absolute need for that more organised support as people progress into their later years but our role here is to help individuals keep that at bay for as long as possible.”

The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. In its most recent annual report, Gateshead 50+ found that 89% of beneficiaries meet someone they go on to socialise with outside of the charity’s environment. As a catalyst for new friendships, the organisation’s positive impact is unquestionable, particularly given that 45% of beneficiaries live alone.

“The science around social connections and health is well established at this stage. We know that abject loneliness is a key predictor of poor health – both physically and mentally – so the role played by our little community is quite a powerful one.”

He continues

“We’ve found ourselves working in tandem with the local authorities and health services in recent years. For example, we were commissioned to deliver “Staying Steady” fall prevention workshops in Gateshead. Cutting the number of falls in the borough by improving balance and core strength has the potential to keep people safe and injury free. It also save the NHS millions of pounds a year.

“We get a lot of referrals from GPs and physios. Recent figures suggest that about 25% of people going to GPs can be traced back to non-medical issues – loneliness, anxiety and mental issues that we are well placed to help alleviate.”

Flexibility and freedom offered through the Community Action Fund

Developing and managing an ever-changing programme of activities certainly reaps benefits for the beneficiaries who visit Gateshead 50+ each month.

As Craig is quick to point out, being adaptable and able to shape activities around the community is made easier by the availability of core funding from the Greggs Foundation. He explains that the Foundation trusts charities to use funding in the way that they believe will be most impactful. He says,

“We’ve been fortunate enough to have received several rounds of funding from the Greggs Foundation over the last 10 years and we were happy to be considered for a Community Grant last year as we are based near to one of the Outlet stores.

 “The Foundation’s funding is quite rare in that it gives us the freedom and flexibility we need to be able to react to our beneficiaries’ requirements. They come to us all the time and ask if we can explore new activities that will keep people physically and mentally engaged. And we can be quite light on our feet in accommodating those ideas.

“But the grant also makes it possible to fund the aspects of running a charity that people often don’t see or don’t think about. Nobody wants to pay for toilet roll or paper cups, cover the electricity bill or the cleaning costs. But we need premises that are clean and comfortable.

“Through the Community Action Fund we are trusted to use our grant wisely where it’s going to have the best impact. That means a lot to us and it’s supported by the relationships we’ve built with the Foundation team over the last 9-10 years.

“They know that the outcomes linked to this organisation far exceed the value in terms of income – partly because they’ve seen it with their own eyes. Having visits from funders actually means a lot to us; we love that they are engaged and come to see what we are doing.”

You can find out more about the incredible work being done at Gateshead 50+ by visiting their website and reading their recent Impact Report.