Individual Report: Community Business Project - Age UK Analysis

This report delves into Age UK's community business project, focusing on their efforts to enhance digital skills among older adults, particularly during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. It examines Age UK's structure, mission, and strategies, highlighting the social media platforms favored by older adults and the barriers they face in accessing digital services. The report discusses how Age UK adapted its services during the pandemic through digital inclusion projects like One Digital, which aims to support and empower older individuals online. Critical analysis reveals challenges such as skill gaps, access limitations, and motivational barriers, alongside merits and limitations of the implemented strategies. The report concludes that Age UK's digital initiatives have significantly benefited older adults by improving their digital literacy and fostering social connections. Recommendations include tailoring digital skills training to individual interests, providing patient and supportive learning environments, and ensuring continued access to digital resources to promote independent living and effective communication.

Community Business Project
Individual Report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
2. Results.....................................................................................................................................3
3. Discussion...............................................................................................................................5
4. Conclusion...............................................................................................................................6
5. Recommendations...................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Purpose of the report is that it is delivering the basis through which Age UK is taking
concern of the older people and the age groups in ensuring the aspects of how effectively and in
appropriate manner their digital skills will be improved and how this will keep them engaged
during Covid and post Covid. The report also explains the barriers and the challenges which Age
UK is facing and what is the manner in which through providence of One digital project the
older people will be able to incur the services of how effectively they can utilize the services
online and through what measures these can be reached.
This research will help in analyzing how effectively Age UK in Birmingham is delivering
the services to the older adults so that they are not facing any problems and issues. Apart from
this, there will be various measures which will be denoted in the research which will provide the
challenges and barriers to be overcome within the research to be conducted effectively through
the secondary research to be conducted. The main aim of the research is to provide the aspect
through which older people are able to utilize the digital services through the usage of social
media platforms in an effective manner.
MAIN BODY
2. Results
a) Age UK structure, company culture, mission/aims, organizational strategy
Age UK is independent charity that supports health and well-being of older people which
are residing in city. The charity organization provides services to older age group people which
have been impacted due to Covid 19 effects.
Mission — To enable, empower and support people to live well so that they are encouraged to
live actively, engaged and influence members of the community (Jones and et.al., 2020).
Organizational Strategy — Inspiring people to join clause so that older people are being taken
acre of in effective manner by providing them regular services.
b) Reviewing most popular mediums/social media platforms among older adults
According to Shearer and et.al., (2021), 3.7 million people over 65 having never used the
internet within Age UK in Birmingham. The most common social media platforms which helps
3

the older adults in communicating with the other older people is done by using Facebook,
YouTube, etc. The older generation will use these applications so that they can easily
communicate with each other via internet. This will also help in removing this challenge and
barrier by the effective usage of these internet services.
c) Barriers that Age UK faced in getting their clients to access digital services
Barriers in skills field are — Digital skills and understanding.
Barriers in access to IT are — There is lack of access in digital services, poor internet
connection and internet signal etc.
Barriers in motivation are — Understanding why older people have mistrust to handle and come
on online platforms and why they are not able to overcome their fear and trust.
Thus, these are barriers which are being faced by Age UK in getting clients to access
digital services.
d) Their services and how they adapted/digitalized these during the pandemic
According to Madhu and et.al., (2020), The services of Age UK have been suspended due
to major Covid 19 impact on the older adults. During this pandemic the Age UK have framed
digital inclusion projects which is supporting people to get online as well as it is helping them to
network in their local communities. This has increased the scale through which the older people
are able to communicate effectively and in appropriate manner. This is the service which Age
UK has adopted during the pandemic.
Critical Thinking
The critical thinking skills which should be developed by student for analyzing the basis
through which Age UK reacted to pandemic and continued to provide the service through which
all aspects of skills are developed which helps in analyzing how the older adults are seeking the
online services. It became extremely difficult for the older adults to cope up with the pandemic
situation specially for those older adults who are having long term poor health conditions. It has
become very challenging for the older adults to cope up with the pandemic situation.
4

The Age UK research also discovered that there were many older age people who were
facing depression, low mood, lack of support, deterioration in the physical health etc. The Age
UK in Birmingham faced and came out of the pandemic situation by coping up with positive
mindfulness and the charity also advises to eat well so that they can cope up with the pandemic
in the healthy way. To get full vaccination every year so that the fear of being Covid+ is lost
(Meltzoff and et.al., 2018). Contacting with the general practitioner was also advised to the older
people by the Age UK. Keeping the body warm and staying well so that the older age group
people are not facing any of the effects of pandemic or Covid 19. Winter proofing the finances is
the must and important step which has been advised by Age UK.
The digital angles support the online services which helps in providing the scale through
which older adults can communicate with each other and this helps in creating value as to how
effectively and in proper manner the digital services are being provided to the older people or
older adults (Wang, 2017). Thus, this helps in collecting all the essential digital marketing
services are being provided by the Age UK to know more about what has been provided through
the measures of diverting the basis overall.
3. Discussion
It has been discussed that there are merits and limitations of the ideas which were
provided to overcome the barriers of skills, access and motivation which will help in older adults
to engage with digital services offered by Age UK. There are major three barriers which are
described under lack of skills which includes digital skills and the understanding. The next major
barriers is the access to IT which includes lack of access to digital devices, poor internet signal
and internet device which further includes lack of physical impairments, funds etc (Murphy and
et.al., 2019). The next major barriers which the Age UK in Birmingham is facing is the
motivation which includes that how the Age UK can provide the online platforms and scales
through which how the older adults can incur the services online and what are the provisions
which will help them in getting their trust and confidence to handle the usage of online
platforms. It has also been explained that there are merits and limitations which helps in
engaging the basis through which digital services which Age UK will be providing to the older
people are denoted as -
5

Merits — The Age UK can develop the digital services through which the charity organization
is able to deliver the basis though which digitally the charity organization has collaborated with
the One Digital which has involved the project which has been funded and has included the Age
UK along with the other organizations (Syme, 2019). This supports the basis through which
better digital skills in UK through supporting, inspiring and empowering the digital champions.
The services are being provided to the Age UK so that the charity organization is providing the
basis through which the older adults are able to take the digital services and these are aligned
through One Digital funded project.
Limitations — The Age UK by incurring this project might find difficulty in gaining the scale of
how much older people are involved in incurring the digital services (Mittal and et.al., 2019).
This is the major limitation which has led to failure in reaching out to the digital services by the
older people and through this the perspective of making available services to the Age UK older
people are handling the scale through which the charity organization is facing major challenge in
providing the digital services at large scale.
It has also been discussed that the Age UK in Birmingham Is facing the major problems
in providing the digital platforms to the older adults as they are unaware of the digital services
which are being analyzed at large scale. There are some major challenges which have been faced
by Age UK which involves in providing the aspect through which what are the digital sources or
mediums Age UK should use like the usage of social media platforms such as Facebook, Emails,
Twitter, YouTube, Zoom etc. Therefore, the main aim of the Age UK is that they make available
the digital services which helps in deciding the major aspects as to how effectively the older
people or adults can use the digital services effectively and in appropriate manner.
4. Conclusion
Thus, it has been concluded from the above findings that, Age UK is providing the digital
services which helps in knowing the major aspects through which the Age UK provided the
services through one digital. The digital services are being provided to the older adults by
making the services available to the older adults which helps them in using the devices
effectively and in appropriate manner. Age UK has helped over 18,000 older people to
understand the benefits of getting online and provided the opportunity in developing their digital
6

skills which engaged them to deliver effective results at large scale and ensured them that they
are also able to manage and evaluate their digital skills which are to be improved and how they
can learn more through them. This also helped them in living included and independent life.
There has been sudden increase in the digital services which up graded the scale through
which all measures are being analyzed as how the older people are more engaged in learning new
things are analyzing the basis through which effective measures are taken for denoting how Age
UK Is providing the digital services and making them learn new things via digital platforms.
5. Recommendations
The Age UK should operate post Covid digital world by ensuring that all the measures of
how successfully the effectiveness is being addressed which helps in ensuring the aspects
through which there are various recommendations which are provided at large scale. These
recommendations are described as below -
 The interests areas of older people should be analyzed so that they are able to maintain
the measure through which they are engaged in learning the digital skills.
 To be fun and patient with the older people so that they do not face difficulties and
problems in living during the times of Covid (Brooke and et.al., 2020).
 Age UK should ensure that the older people are provided all the services and products
which helps in ensuring that they are incurring the services in effective manner.
 Age UK should also provide positive environment post Covid so that the older people are
relaxed and are able to take care of themselves by distracting their daily routine to
something new and engaging.
 The most important facility which Age UK should provide to the older people is that
providence of digital services which helps in ensuring how effectively and in appropriate
manner the organization is able to deliver their best at large scale (Leigh-Hunt and et.al.,
2017).
 Post Covid services Age UK should provide to the older people should be done by
providing the digital skills so that they are able to communicate effectively and in
appropriate manner. This helps in ensuring their digital skills are being developed at high
7

scale and this implies that how effectively and in appropriate manner the older people are
engaged in incurring the services.
Therefore, these are the major recommendations which should be taken concern of in ensuring
that how aspects of Age UK in providence of services and products are being made available to
older people effectively.
8

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brooke, J. and et.al., 2020. Older people and COVID-19 isolation, risk and ageism. Journal of
clinical nursing.
Jones, X.R. and et.al., 2020. Covid-19: an exposition, with a focus on social isolation in the
elderly (UK). Milton Keynes: The Open University.
Leigh-Hunt, N. and et.al., 2017. An overview of systematic reviews on the public health
consequences of social isolation and loneliness. Public health. 152. pp.157-171.
Madhu, P.P., and et.al., 2020. The great awakening-digitalization in dental healthcare during the
pandemic covid19. Int. J. Res. Pharm. Sci. pp .380-384.
Meltzoff, J. and et.al., 2018. Critical thinking about research: Psychology and related fields.
American psychological association.
Mittal, A. and et.al., 2019, October. Charity streaming: Why charity organizations use live
streams for fundraising. In Extended Abstracts of the Annual Symposium on Computer-
Human Interaction in Play Companion Extended Abstracts(pp. 551-556).
Murphy, D. and et.al., 2019. Describing the profile of a population of UK veterans seeking
support for mental health difficulties. Journal of Mental Health. 28(6). pp.654-661.
Shearer, E. and et.al., 2021. News use across social media platforms in 2020.
Syme, T., 2019. Charity vs. revolution: Effective altruism and the systemic change objection.
Ethical theory and moral practice. 22(1). pp.93-120.
Wang, S., 2017. An Exploration into Research on Critical Thinking and Its Cultivation: An
Overview. Theory & Practice in Language Studies. 7(12).
9