Age OK
Age OK launched >>
'Youth-obsessed' UK businesses are ignoring a market worth £250 billion a year.
About Age OK
One of the services offered to engage members is the Age OK product accreditation mark.
The Age OK accreditation mark will be awarded to specific products and services that an expert panel has judged to be sufficiently 'age-friendly'. In order to win the accreditation, the product or service will go through a rigorous selection process that seeks to ensure that it has been designed inclusively, factoring in the needs that might pertain to an older person.
Businesses can apply for the accreditation by becoming a member of the engage network (annual membership costs £1,000) and then by completing an Age OK application at a cost of £1,500 per product or service.
Each application is scrutinised by an audit committee, the members of which will not be aware of the name of the brand, product or service. Any potential conflicts of interests will also have to be declared.
Once the audit committee has completed their assessment an approval committee then makes a conclusive judgement. As with the audit committee, none of the panel will be aware of the name of the brand, product or service and any conflicts of interests will have to be declared.
The whole process will take approximately six months from start to finish.
In addition to the product accreditation mark, the Charity also plans to launch an organisational accreditation in 2010 which will be awarded to businesses who take into account the overall customer experience for older people. This will include aspects such as shop design, customer service and marketing.