A Review of Age Discrimination in Primary and Community Health Care, Secondary Health Care, Mental Health Care and Social Care Services in the United Kingdom

THE CENTRE FOR POLICY ON AGEING (CPA) carried out a series of five literature based reviews in 2007 and 2009, commissioned by the Department of Health, to look for evidence of age discrimination in health and social care services in the United Kingdom. The reviews looked at the costs and benefits of age discrimination legislation and at evidence of discrimination in primary and community health care, secondary health care, mental health care and social care. The CPA reviews support the Department of Health’s activities to root out age discrimination in the context of the European Commission Draft Directive (July 2008) – COM (2008) 426 and the introduction in the UK Parliament of the Equality Bill (April 2009) and related secondary legislation that will set out details of the new age discrimination ban in the provision of goods and services. The body of work produced by CPA informed the national review on age discrimination, which brought together evidence from a range of sources to examine the extent to which health and social care services are differentiated by age, where people may receive less favourable treatment because of age, and where this may be unlawful and therefore constitute discrimination under the Equality Bill, culminating in a report to the Secretary of State for Health in October 2009. Key principles underpinning the work around age equality in health and social care include: