2015 Assembly
The 2015 Assembly was sponsored by Christian Allard MSP and addressed social justice in the context of SOPA’s Action Plan topics. Alex Neil, MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Equalities and Pensioners' Rights delivered the keynote speech.
The morning session was held in the Members Room. After lunch there were six hour-long workshops on themes that people had identified as important - Housing and Community Safety, Health and Social Care, Transport, Travel and Environment, Community Empowerment, Retirement, Pensions and Money Matters and Communication and Information.
Feedback delivered the following Campaign Issues -
Funeral poverty reduction through funded developments and promotion of social enterprise funeral arrangements
Awareness-raising of negative impacts of changes to the State Pension
Promotion of the need for funded programmes to encourage active citizenship in later life, including participation in communication technology
Older representatives on all Joint Integrated Boards and improved quality of life for people cared for in a home and at home through links to the community.
Respect, excellent training and decent pay for care workers
No discrimination concerning psychological and therapeutic services for people 65 plus.
The Members Room
Workshops
Each workshop focused on one or two topics, shared experiences and identified up to 2 campaigning actions for presentation in the Plenary Session. The topics were drawn from the priority areas identified at the local meetings around the country.
The topics were Housing and Community Safety, Health and Social Care, Transport, Travel and Environment, Community Empowerment, Retirement, Pensions and Money Matters and Communication and Information. Click on the hyperlinks below and use the slider to navigate to the start point of the workshop video.
Workshop 1: Workshop 2: Workshop 3: Workshop 4: Workshop 5: Workshop 6
Feedback Session
Workshop Feedback Video - Click here
MSP Responses to feedback - Click here
Questions to MSPs from the floor - Click here
MSP Panel - Rhoda Grant, Christian Allard and Dennis Robertson
BBC Scotland Radio Interview
Tom Berney and Val Bissland were interviewed briefly on the Kaye Adams Programme on BBC Radio Scotland before the Assembly. They highlighted the role of older people in creating a fairer society. Click here to listen.
