CEO/Chair Focus | Working with you in the year ahead 

Covered in this email:

• Four key areas of transformation we’re inviting your support on this year 

• Dates of 2030 Strategy Workshops in the week commencing 23 February 

• Dates of Digital Collaboration Demonstrations in the week commencing 2 March 

• Recruitment opportunities for Age UK Board of Trustees and the Network Committee and a reminder of the next CEO Forum 

We discussed at Network Conference in November that this coming year is one of transformation – laying foundations for how, as a whole network, we can change the way we age.  

So in 2026 there are 4 big transformation areas we’d like your input and support to develop:  

1. Setting ambitious 2030 goals, and articulating how we'll achieve them

At our CEO online forum in September and at the November conference we shared with you how, as the needs of older people continue to grow, it feels right to set some ambitious collective goals for Age UK as a whole network. These should reflect the areas where we want to work most closely together to have a greater impact for older people. 

From those conversations with you, as well as discussions with the Network Committee and with the Age UK Board, a strong consensus has emerged that our shared focus should be on:  

• Reducing Poverty 
• Enabling Connection  
• Health and Social Care  

These reflect the Shared Strategy, and will start to bring our broad ambitions into sharper focus. They will help guide our focus over the coming years and help us work strategically with funders over the longer term. We would like to start working with you to put more detail around these goals by defining the impact we want to see, the key enablers for achieving that impact (e.g. around digital inclusion) and how we can get there working together.  

Conversations on this will continue across the year. In the first instance we’ll be holding a series of online workshops for Chief Officers led by James Radford, Strategy and Transformation Director, to get initial input to this work. We've set up a choice of 3 times (you only need to attend one) and Chief Officers can sign up using these links: 

• Tuesday 24 February | 9.30 - 11am 
• Wednesday 25 February | 11am - 12.30pm 
• Wednesday 25 February | 3 - 4:30pm 
   

2. Income generation strategy

A clear income generation strategy will be crucial to support our work towards these goals. In November, Chief Income Generation Officer Leah Mates shared that Age UK’s income has been flat for many years. Changing how we work together on this will mean we’re able to grow our net income in a sustainable way to 2030 and beyond. That includes an important aim to generate more income that can be used to support you and local delivery of services.  

The Network Working Group for Income Generation, a group of local Age UK CEOs, met earlier this month to start exploring how we can work differently together to grow our collective net income. The group is chaired by Jay Anderson, CEO of Age UK Wirral, Liverpool and Sefton, alongside Leah Mates. The group will meet regularly and will work closely with the Network Committee; Committee members Helen Rice and Mark Hanna are also part of the working group. We’ll ensure you are all kept up to date and engaged as things develop. 
 

3. Digital transformation

In November we also talked about the need for digital transformation. This will be a significant area of work over the coming years, responding to what we’ve heard about the clunkiness of some of our systems, and how we could work more efficiently as a network and start to embrace new technology. Neil Johnson, our new Chief Transformation and Technology Officer, will join us at the beginning of April and lead this work.  

In the short term however, we know the loop isn’t fit for purpose. It’s hindering our ability to share information, learning and knowledge and collaborate effectively as a network. So this year we’re going to replace the loop with a modern digital platform that meets these needs. We’ll soon be inviting you to help decide which features offered by leading platform providers are most important to us as a network. We'll be hosting four demonstrations which are open to anyone in your organisation. These will take place in the first week of March on the following dates:  

• Monday 2 March | 10 – 11:30am 
• Tuesday 3 March | 10 – 11:30am 
• Wednesday 4 March | 10 – 11:30am 
• Thursday 5 March | 10-11:30am 

Each demonstration will be with a different vendor, but the format will be the same. So it’s not necessary to attend more than one session. 

Further information will be shared via Signpost as soon as possible inviting colleagues to attend. 
 

4. Services Transformation Programme

Another of our emerging 2030 goals is to strengthen social connection, ensuring every older person can access the support they need to feel less lonely and more included.  

Across the Age UK network, our social connection services already play a vital role in this. We currently offer hundreds of local and national services, but they’ve developed separately over time. As the needs of older people become more complex and demand grows, we want to take a step back and work together on how we can make the most of our local and national capabilities in this area of work to offer more holistic, person-centred support. We are starting with an assumption that in the future we want to do more in local communities.  

We’ll be working with older people, staff, volunteers and local partners to design a joined-up approach that brings together local and national strengths, reflects older people’s needs and our shared strategy, and that will enable us to raise more funds for this important area of our work.  We’re setting up the first phase of this programme now and we’ll be inviting local partners to get involved in the design process. We’re currently planning a first set of workshops w/c 16 March.
 

New recruitment opportunities, and regular CEO Forums

Of course as always, there will be plenty for us to discuss and work on together outside of these four areas, too. As part of increasing the opportunities for strategic discussions and information sharing across the Network, we are continuing to host quarterly CEO Forums with the Network Committee this year. Two weeks ago, CEOs will have received a diary invitation to our first one of the year on Wednesday 11 February from 9:30 to 11am. We appreciate this one is shorter notice than usual, and are aiming to get future dates in your diaries soon.  

For Chairs, we’d like to do more with you this year to keep in touch and discuss Shared Strategy. We’re looking at ways to do this now, and will keep you updated as plans develop.  

We’re also currently recruiting for four new Age UK trustees, and will soon be recruiting for additional members of the Network Committee. Please do take a look at these opportunities to help guide our work as a network, and share with anyone else who may be interested.  

I hope to see many of you on Wednesday 11 February for the CEO Forum, and look forward to working with you over the coming year. 

Best wishes,

Paul Farmer
Chief Executive
Age UK